BIG MONEY MOVES: As former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis duke it out for the mantle of former President Donald Trump alternative in the 2024 GOP primary, the deep-pocketed Koch network is betting its chips on Haley to defeat the former president, the group announced this morning, in a big blow to DeSantis. — With its endorsement, the Kochs’ grassroots arm Americans for Prosperity Action pledged to commit its ground operation to helping Haley in early primary states, an effort supplemented by “extensive mail, digital, and connected television campaigns,” Emily Seidel, a senior adviser to the group, said in a memo. — AFP announced its plans earlier this year to wade into the Republican presidential primary for the first time in its history; the group said over the summer it planned to devote up to $70 million to dethrone Trump, who remains the clear frontrunner for the GOP nomination. — “The American people have shown they’re ready to move on from the current political era, so AFP Action will help them do that,” Seidel’s memo says, citing AFP’s polling. Haley, Seidel argued on a call with reporters this morning, “offers America the opportunity to turn the page on the current political era to win the Republican primary and defeat Joe Biden.” — The group also pointed to internal data on Haley’s favorability among supporters of other candidates. The endorsement is a major snub to DeSantis, who AFP endorsed in his gubernatorial reelection, and his camp dismissed the move as an “in-kind to the Trump campaign.” — “Governor DeSantis has been a tremendous leader for the state of Florida. He's been a strong advocate for many of the policies that we fight for every day,” Seidel told reporters, though she maintained the decision ultimately came down to the group’s data showing Haley “is the strongest candidate in this race.” CRYPTO ALLIES HUNT FOR A VEHICLE: “Rep. Patrick McHenry is fighting to pull off a political miracle that would make his three-week speakership look easy,” our Jasper Goodman and Eleanor Mueller write: “rallying Congress and the White House behind landmark cryptocurrency bills.” — “The North Carolina Republican has made crypto his top priority as chair of the House Financial Services Committee,” but McHenry “is facing resistance from crypto-skeptic lawmakers … who are more eager to rein in the industry than give it political legitimacy in the wake of major scandals. In a bid to shore up support, McHenry is courting Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Biden administration officials.” — “With time running out before lawmakers go into campaign mode next year, McHenry is making a last-ditch push to attach his legislation to a must-pass defense bill, in a move that’s complicating negotiations on other aspects of the package.” — The effort comes as “representatives from crypto firms are set to descend upon Washington this week as part of a Blockchain Association conference,” where Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), a supporter of the crypto bills, “said the industry will need to better articulate the beneficial use case for crypto.” FORD’S D.C. OFFICE ADDS A HARRIS AIDE: Ford has added a former longtime aide to Vice President Kamala Harris to its government relations shop. Deanne Millison, who’s worked for Harris since her time in the Senate and most recently served as her chief economic adviser, has joined Ford’s D.C. office as a senior director. — The hire comes on the heels of the United Auto Workers’ strike against Ford and the other so-called Big Three automakers, during which Biden became the first sitting president to walk a picket line in support of striking workers. The strike, which began in September, was finally formally wrapped up just last week when UAW workers ratified tentative agreements struck with the automakers in October. — Ford’s D.C. office has added two other new staffers this year, as facilitating the transition to electric vehicles has become a key part of the Biden administration’s policy agenda. Elizabeth Kosobucki joined as a director for trade policy strategy, and Alec Rogers, joined as a director of government affairs for tax and finance policy. Kosobucki is a USTR alum, while Rogers previously was senior director for government affairs, tax policy and government procurement at Xerox Corporation. AMAZON, SENATE ALUM HANGS A SHINGLE: Health policy veteran Amber Talley has launched Talley Strategies, a boutique health policy consulting firm based in Virginia. Talley most recently worked on the business development teams for Amazon’s health care offerings after serving as a senior manager of public policy for PillPack. Before that, she was a senior counsel and investigator for then-Senate Aging Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) and served as chief of staff for former Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah). — Talley’s firm will provide business and policy consulting as well as federal and multistate advocacy, and coalition management focused on health payments, tax, and data issues for digital and remote care providers, pharmaceutical manufacturers and supply chain participants, and health data and information technology companies. KNOWING WAEL HANA: The Washington Post’s Shawn Boburg, Claire Parker, Terrence McCoy and Marina Dias have a profile out of Wael Hana, the businessperson who was charged in September with bribing Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Menendez’s wife in exchange for political favors for the benefit of the Egyptian government. — “Hana, 40, lavished the couple with gold bars, checks and household furnishings between 2018 and 2022, prosecutors allege, while helping to introduce the senator to Egyptian military and intelligence officers and serving as a go-between for their communications.” — “A Washington Post examination, based on records and interviews with dozens of people who know or have worked with Hana, found that his connections to the Egyptian government go back further and are more extensive than previously reported.” — “Those connections help explain how Hana was in a position to capitalize on his relationship with Menendez, until recently the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, when they met … and forged a bond that prosecutors say quickly became mutually beneficial.”
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