Miami Beach was buzzing with political energy this Wednesday as former South Carolina governor and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley breezed through for a pair of high-dollar fundraisers in her push for the Republican presidential nomination, as per invitations received by CBS News Miami. With tickets to the luncheon at The One hotel starting at a cool $2,500 and scaling up to $10,000, the event drew in South Florida's well-heeled, just one day President Joe Biden wrapped his own fundraising visit to the city.
But it wasn't just luncheon leftovers Haley was gunning for, according to Local 10 News, she's aiming for an incremental increase and staying power in a race where she's pitching herself as the Trump alternative, yet following her third-place finish in Iowa and a trailing performance in New Hampshire, she's undoubtedly facing an uphill battle. But it seems like Haley's not short on backing, with big names like billionaire megadonor Ken Griffin recently shifting his support from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to her, dropping a hefty $5 million into a Haley-centric super PAC. "Her poise? Admirable. Her foreign policy experience? Tremendous. Her ability to unite this country? Phenomenal," Griffin is quoted praising.
The crux of these fundraisers, including the aforementioned and the "private roundtable" later in the afternoon carrying a $16,600 admission tag per person, is to infuse cash into Haley's campaign coffers, as her team is reportedly eyeing a million-dollar haul from the Miami events alone. And while Trump looms large, vowing that those dropping dollars into Haley's campaign will be "permanently banned from the MAGA camp," her campaign machine counter-punched the threat revealing an impressive over $1 million raised in the days post-Trump's ire, this according to CBS News Miami.
The atmosphere in Miami Beach was akin to a litmus test to gauge if Haley's financial backers here echo the same sentiment as Miami attorney Scott Srebnick, who unabashedly shared with CBS News Miami, "I'm supporting Nikki Haley because Donald Trump is an existential threat to our country," adding that he believes Trump "lacks empathy and basic human decency." Only time will tell if these high-roller fundraisers translate into enough momentum to carry Haley through the much-anticipated South Carolina primary, where despite being on her home turf it's speculated she's in for a tough tussle against the former president in the cut-throat GOP primary race.
