Nikki Haley raises $11M for 2024 Republican presidential campaign in six weeks

Nikki Haley raised $11 million for her 2024 Republican presidential campaign in just six weeks since launching the bid, her campaign announced Wednesday.

The former South Carolina governor and UN ambassador scored the impressive cash haul in the first quarter of 2023 after announcing her candidacy in February.

“Voters and donors are clearly responding to Nikki’s conservative message and her call for a new generation of leadership to make America strong and proud,” campaign manager Betsy Ankney said in a statement.

Haley has received more than 70,000 donations, including more than 67,000 small-dollar donations of less than $200 a pop.

Haley became the first major GOP candidate to challenge former President Donald Trump after he announced his comeback White House bid right after the midterm elections last November.

She has sought to treat Trump with kid gloves, carefully avoiding direct criticism of her ex-boss.

Haley actually outraised Trump’s campaign in the first quarter, although he has raised millions more for his political action group and has a massive $100 million campaign war chest.

It’s debatable whether GOP voters are responding enthusiastically to Haley’s nascent campaign.

She won mostly positive reviews for her campaign launch, which focused on burnishing her conservative credentials and her inspiring life story as the overachieving daughter of South Asian immigrants who grew up in small-town South Carolina.

Haley has also proven to be an energetic campaigner, making an impressive 18 appearances in early voting state of New Hampshire, where her suburban mom image could make her a formidable candidate.

She plans to spend much of April crisscrossing Iowa, which will hold the first GOP caucus.

But Haley has failed to make much of a mark in polls of Republican primary voters, scoring in the mid single figures.

That has put mostly in fourth place in surveys behind Trump and his main potential rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, along with ex-Vice President Mike Pence.

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson this week joined the race. He has broken with GOP rivals by calling on Trump to pull out of the primary fight after his indictment in the Stormy Daniels hush money case.

Neither DeSantis nor Pence have officially entered the race yet.

Trump has lashed out at all of his rivals, announced and unannounced, even as they tread gingerly around his alleged misdeeds.

He said Haley was welcome to join the primary field but has since trashed her as an establishment “Republican in name only.”