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Campaign Almanac: Nikki Haley staffs up in Iowa
Also, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum releases first Iowa TV ad
A mix of young Republican strategists and state politicians will spearhead former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s campaign in Iowa leading up to the state’s first-in-the-nation GOP presidential caucuses.
Haley, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who is working to separate herself from an increasingly crowded field of 2024 Republican presidential candidates, announced her Iowa leadership team Monday.
That team includes Bill Mackey, who served as campaign manager for Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn’s successful 2022 congressional campaign. Nunn unseated two-term incumbent Democrat Cindy Axne to represent Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, flipping a crucial seat to give the GOP an all-Republican Iowa congressional delegation.
Mackey will serve as Haley’s Iowa political director.
Haley’s Iowa campaign leadership team also includes Iowa state Sen. Chris Cournoyer, R-LeClaire; state Rep. Austin Harris, R-Moulton; former Polk County GOP chair Dawn Roberts; and millennial business leader Emily Sukup-Schmitt, a third-generation family member of Sukup Manufacturing Co.
Haley has hosted or participated in 24 events in Iowa, according to her campaign, from large town halls to meet-and-greets, policy forums and Iowa Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst’s “Roast and Ride” fundraiser earlier this month in Des Moines, the first major cattle call of the 2024 presidential campaign.
Haley is among nine GOP presidential hopefuls set to speak at the Republican Party of Iowa’s annual Lincoln Dinner fundraiser July 28 in Des Moines.
Doug Burgum releases first Iowa TV ad
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum released his first TV ads in Iowa and New Hampshire as part of his newly launched campaign seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
NBC News reported Burgum is spending $3 million on the ads in the two early GOP primary and caucus states. Burgum is independently wealthy. His net worth is estimated to be more than $1 billion. He mortgaged his family farmland to invest in a fledgling software startup that he took public and later sold to Microsoft in 2001 for $1.1 billion.
The governor announced his presidential ambitions in Fargo on Wednesday, quickly embarking on an Iowa tour last week that included stops at the Field of Dreams and the World Pork Expo in Des Moines.
Burgum, during the stops, eschewed the culture war bomb-throwing of his primary rivals for wonky policy talk on energy and the economy, positioning himself as a new leader for a changing economy.
The first ad highlights Burgum's upbringing as a “small-town boy, self-made business leader” and governor.
"I grew up in a tiny town in North Dakota. Shined shoes, worked on the farm at the grain elevator and as a chimney sweep," Burgum says in the ad. “Woke is what you did at 5 a.m. to start the day. Those roots gave me the courage to literally bet the farm to grow a small business. Endless hours later, we grew it into a billion dollar global company, employing thousands."
He also touts highlights from his time as governor, from cutting red tape to building a budget surplus and implementing tax breaks.
The second ad focuses on Burgum's platform, which includes cutting taxes, increasing American energy production and rebuilding the U.S. military to “win the Cold War with China.”
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