Ron DeSantis Reacts to Losing Big Donors to Nikki Haley

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has shrugged off reports that major donors are backing his GOP primary rival Nikki Haley as his 2024 campaign continues to falter.

Speaking to Fox News' Laura Ingraham, DeSantis was asked whether he is concerned that several big donors are coming out in support of the former South Carolina governor. This, at a time when DeSantis' campaign has been dogged with indications it is struggling financially, amid the letting go of dozens of staff members and filings revealing the campaign has just a few million dollars in cash for the remainder of the primary season.

DeSantis was once seen as Donald Trump's main rival in the 2024 GOP primary, but the Florida Governor's campaign has frequently stalled and trails the former president by large margins in the polls. Instead, Haley is starting to emerge as Trump's biggest potential challenger, buoyed by strong televised debate performances and GOP donors believing she has a better chance of getting elected to the White House than Trump in 2024.

Speaking to Ingraham, DeSantis said that his campaign is "doing very well" and has "consistently outpaced" Haley in terms of fundraising. In the last quarter, Haley raised $11 million while DeSantis raised $15 million, although this was down from the $20 million the Florida Governor raised in the previous quarter.

"What it shows is, I have consistently proven that I will do what I think is right, regardless of what donors say," DeSantis said. "We've taken on Disney, we've taken on Big Pharma, we took on the sugar industry in Florida when we did our Everglades plan.

"So, I've been able to do that and my view is, let the chips fall where they may, do what you think is right. Don't twist yourself into a pretzel to try to kowtow to people just for donations."

DeSantis said that a political candidate getting money from Wall Street and other big donors does not necessarily convert into votes from the general public.

"A lot of the folks on Wall Street have policy positions that are just anathema to the American people," DeSantis said. "You will not win an election in this country nationwide if you're adopting their platform. I think we've seen that with Republicans who've tried to do that in the past.

"So I'm doing what I think is right, I think we'll end up being much better off for that throughout this process."

Haley's campaign has been contacted for comment via email.

Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, and Kenneth G. Langone, the billionaire Home Depot co-founder, are among the major business names who are reported by The New York Times to be gravitating towards Haley in the 2024 race with just under two months to go until the first in the nation Iowa caucus in January.

"I'm a long way from making my mind up—something could change—but I'm very impressed with her," Langone, who has donated to Haley's campaign and may give more, told The Times. "I think she's a viable candidate. I would certainly like her over Trump."

Eric Levine, a GOP donor who is hosting a fundraiser for Haley in December, said: "There were people that don't like Trump at all but were very skeptical that he could be stopped. They now believe he can be stopped."

Levine said that the "aura of invincibility" surrounding Trump has "just peeled away completely" as the legal issues surrounding the former president continue to mount.

On Tuesday, the Americans for Prosperity Action, a political network of donors founded by the billionaire Koch brothers, also announced they were endorsing Haley for president, describing her as the candidate who "offers America the opportunity to turn the page on the current political era, to win the Republican primary and defeat Joe Biden next November."

According to FiveThirtyEight's national average poll tracker, Trump leads the GOP primary with 69.9 percent, with DeSantis second on 12.4 percent and Haley third with 9.8 percent.