HALEY'S SLOW BURN

IN TRUMP'S GOP, THE PATH FORWARD IS NARROW AND STEEP

- MINI RACKER/SIOUX CITY, IOWA

AFTER 10 LONG MONTHS OF campaigning, it was a 30-second video that suggested Nikki Haley was finally getting somewhere. The December television ad, paid for by Donald Trump's allies and aired in New Hampshire, accused the Republican presidential candidate of flip-flopping on the gas tax as South Carolina governor. But you could practically hear the champagne corks popping at Haley's headquarters in Charleston. "Someone's getting nervous," she posted on social media.

Haley's emergence as perhaps the top threat to another Trump nomination isn't what many Republicans expected when she launched her underdog campaign last February. But as the first votes in the 2024 GOP presidential primaries neared, she climbed to second place in many national and early-state surveys, eclipsing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Her slow-burn rise has been fueled by standout debate performances, which convinced many Republicans-including plenty of Wall Street donors-that Haley is the party's best hope to beat both the GOP front-runner and President Joe Biden. (One recent poll of a hypothetical matchup with Biden found her leading by 17 points.) Her momentum has opened a spigot of cash and spurred a series of key endorsements, from New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu to Americans for Prosperity Action, the Koch-backed grassroots powerhouse that has already spent upwards of $4 million on her behalf.