Republican presidential candidate and former United Nations (UN) Ambassador Nikki Haley recently received stock options worth nearly $300,000 in connection with a real estate company merger, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

https://twitter.com/mccormickjohn/status/1650500395167277058?s=46&t=Ndcd_zeA35aix94tQe2cwg

SEC filings show that United Home Group Inc., a real estate company, granted the stock award to Haley on March 30, 2023. 

The Wall Street Journal reported that Haley exchanged her service on the company’s board of directors to receive the money and will continue to do so. The outlet argued that Haley’s remaining time on the corporate board is unusual for a presidential candidate. 

Shortly after announcing his presidential candidacy in 2016, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) resigned from two corporate boards, following in the footsteps of Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), who resigned from Marriott International’s board of directors before running for president in 2012. 

“You are trying to build a profile as a candidate, with a focus on the broader economy and the broader economic environment, and that’s much harder to do if you are seen as working in an active sense with one company,” Kevin Madden, senior adviser to Romney’s presidential campaign, told the Wall Street Journal. “You have to remove the conflicts.”

https://youtu.be/6akI62rzvNU

While Haley has not released a financial disclosure for her 2024 presidential campaign, past disclosures reveal she is less wealthy than Bush and Romney. Haley has not worked full-time since she resigned as U.N. Ambassador in 2018. 

Before the real estate merger, Haley earned approximately $200,000 in cash and stock awards after serving over a year on the board of directors for Great Southern Homes, a prominent home-building company in South Carolina. 

Haley received the stock options after Great Southern Homes merged with DiamondHead Holdings Corp., forming United Homes Group. Her seat on the board does not end until 2026, and her stocks could reach nearly $800,000 in value. She could also receive options for more than 80,000 shares that would become available in three annual installments beginning in January 2024.

Haley has also served on the board of Boeing, an American aerospace company, collecting more than $250,000 in compensation from the company in 2019 and received nearly $84,000 in 2020.