UPDATE: The political arm of Americans for Prosperity, the association formed by the Koch Brothers, "will throw its money and influence behind" former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, CNN Politics reports Tuesday. Americans for Prosperity Action "could dramatically reshape the Republican field" about seven weeks before the Iowa Caucuses, CNN says.

GOP presidential hopeful Nikki Haley’s upward poll numbers still have a long way to go to catch the “presumed” shoo-in, Donald J. Trump, but big money from traditional Republican donors is pushing her forward. A group of chief executives, hedge fund managers and corporate deal makers from both parties have begun to circle the wagons around the former South Carolina governor and UN ambassador to Trump, “in some cases, digging deeper into their pockets to help her,” The New York Times reports. In late October, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon joined the fold, according to the Times’ Sunday story, telling Haley in a phone call he was “impressed by Ms. Haley’s knowledge of policy details and her open-minded approach to complex issues” raised in the GOP’s debates. 

In the face of the hardline authoritarian-Trumpian stance of the House Freedom Caucus and fellow presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Haley supports continued military aid to Ukraine in its defense against Russia, as well as to Israel. She is anti-abortion but opposes any bill that would outlaw it nationally. 

Meanwhile, pundits of every stripe already have called the GOP presidential race for Trump and point to polls showing the former president leading Joe Biden in key battleground states. A small minority of pundits say it is way too early to pay any attention to the polls, and apparently the business/finance crowd that used to lead the GOP agree. The recent flurry of support for Haley comes in addition to the Koch political machine’s effort to make sure anybody but Trump wins the party’s presidential nomination next summer. 

Early this year, Emily Seidel, CEO of the Koch Brothers’ Americans for Prosperity sent a memo to staffers and activists declaring the group part of the never-Trump effort for 2024, Time magazine reported last February.

Why this matters: The “moderate” wing of the GOP, painted as RINOs (“Republicans In Name Only”) by Trump supporters have been trying to claw back the party since 2017 or so. But the MAGA wing, bolstered by Rep. Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) election as House speaker, have managed to keep Trump in the lead by far even after he told his rally crowds he would use the Justice Department to go after his political enemies.