Billionaire Chares Koch and his network of donors and activist groups will oppose Donald Trump in his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Americans for Prosperity (AFP), the network's flagship group, expressed frustration with the direction of American politics in the Trump era in a memo released publicly on Sunday. It's the latest example of growing discontent with Trump among conservatives, who increasingly blame him and his hand-picked candidates for GOP underperformance in the last three elections.
- The Koch network plans to endorse a single candidate by the end of summer 2023.
- The network joins fellow PAC Club for Growth and several prominent individual donors publicly opposing Trump.
- In 2018, Trump wrote on Twitter that "the globalist Koch Brothers, who have become a total joke in real Republican circles, are against Strong Borders and Powerful Trade."
- Many critics reportedly fear Trump will be able to divide and conquer within the GOP, as he did in 2016, to win the nomination.
- AFP and its affiliated super PAC reportedly knocked on more than 7 million doors and delivered more than 100 million pieces of mail in the 2022 midterms.
- AFP Action spent almost $80M in the 2022 cycle, according to OpenSecrets.
- Former South Carolina Governor and Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley is expected to announce her candidacy on Feb. 15.
