Pro-Haley super PAC takes to TV, radio airwaves in final week

Jan. 15—CONCORD — A super PAC backing Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley is spending $1 million on television and radio ads targeting late-deciding independent voters in the final week before New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary.

A group of five wealthy supporters and business executives formed Independents Moving the Needle, which started promoting Haley's candidacy on social media and other web platforms last fall.

"In this final week we are taking it to the next level with TV ads on cable and broadcast TV and radio throughout southern New Hampshire," said Jonathan Bush, one of the organizers who is a cousin to former President George W. Bush and nephew of the late President George H.W. Bush.

In a telephone interview Monday, Bush said he believes Haley can engineer the same comeback that his uncle did 36 years ago.

"I had a front row seat back then when George H. Bush lost Iowa by 20 points to (Christian evangelist) Pat Robertson and then won New Hampshire," Bush said. "Nikki has the same ability to really turn this race around. She doesn't have to win here but she must beat expectations and hopefully by quite a lot."

Actually Sen. Bob Dole (37%) won the Iowa caucus in 1988 over Robertson (25%) with Bush (19%) a distant third. Ten days later, Bush solidly won New Hampshire (38%) over Dole (27%) while Robertson sunk to 5th place (10%)

The ads feature New Hampshire independent voters speaking about Haley's qualities as the former South Carolina governor and ambassador to the United Nations.

"She is smart, she is driven, she has clarity and she has integrity," said Cori of Salem in one of three ads dubbed, "Not Afraid."

"A vote for Nikki Haley changes the trajectory of our nation."

The group's market research last October identified that low-voting independents were most inclined to support Haley than any of the other GOP rivals. The targeted audience were independents who had not voted in the last three Republican presidential primaries in New Hampshire won by U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, in 2012 and Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020.

Among this group, the top two issues are the economy/inflation and immigration.

"New Hampshire is the place where it's a fair election open to voters of all stripes and people there pay such close attention to the issues," Bush said.

"It's no secret that independents can make or break a candidate running in New Hampshire. We believe the climate exists for a record turnout of them in this primary and that will translate to an even better result for Nikki Haley."

Trump's campaign and the MAGA Inc. super PAC supporting his White House bid have stepped up their own ads attacking Haley on taxes, immigration and her openness to raising the retirement age for younger workers before they can qualify for Social Security and Medicare.

The goal is clearly to cause Republican-leaning independents to reject her.

Bush insisted it's been difficult for Haley or any GOP rival to compete with Trump who got so much more free media coverage on news outlets that span the political spectrum.

"He's on welfare as he's gotten a level of media publicity that no candidate in either party can compete with," Bush said.

"This makes the job Nikki Haley and all the candidates have even tougher but if there's a political environment where someone can cut through all of that noise, it's New Hampshire." Organizers said the TV ads will not be airing on Boston stations, but on WMUR and cable TV channels that air in New Hampshire.

klandrigan@unionleader.com