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Top Republican donors have made substantial contributions to candidates challenging Donald Trump for the party’s nomination in the 2024 presidential race. This financial support comes as Trump’s legal issues lead to the depletion of his personal wealth.
The federal campaign finance disclosures for the first half of the year reveal that outside spending groups supporting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis received a $20 million donation from Nevada real estate investor Robert Bigelow and $2 million from Douglas Leone, the global managing partner at venture capital group Sequoia. Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, conservative packaging executives from Wisconsin, donated a combined $2 million to support DeSantis’s campaign.
Richard Uihlein was previously a donor to Trump and played a significant role in funding the January 6, 2021 “March to Save America” rally at the Capitol, which led to the deadly riot.
Meanwhile, Jan Koum, co-founder of WhatsApp, contributed $5 million in support of Nikki Haley’s presidential bid. Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, received smaller contributions from prominent conservative donors, including Stanley Druckenmiller, Jeff Yass, Harlan Crow, and Anthony Scaramucci, the Wall Street financier who briefly served as communications director in the Trump White House.
This early support for Trump’s top rivals will enable them to build significant financial resources as they compete for the party’s nomination. This is crucial, considering that Trump currently dominates national Republican polls, despite the primary and caucus ballots in Iowa and New Hampshire not being cast until January 2024, six months from now.
Although Trump and his allies are effective fundraisers, the latest financial disclosures show that his campaign groups are spending nearly as much as they are receiving. This is due to the significant legal costs incurred by Trump in defending himself against federal and state criminal charges. Despite raising over $50 million in the first half of the year, Trump’s campaign committee and his Save America political action committee spent $57 million during the same period.
The mid-year filing for Trump’s Save America political action committee alone revealed more than $20 million in expenses related to legal consulting and fees for more than 40 law firms.
While some Republican donors are actively supporting other candidates to prevent Trump from obtaining another term in the White House, several prominent conservative financiers, including Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone and Ken Griffin of Citadel, have chosen to remain neutral, indicating their dissatisfaction with the current field of candidates.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden has begun raising funds for his re-election campaign. So far this year, Biden and the Democratic party have raised a combined $72 million for the president’s 2024 bid. Democrats hope that they won’t have to spend a significant portion of this money defending challenges from within the party. However, Robert Kennedy Jr, a member of America’s famous 20th-century political dynasty, is attempting to disrupt this by launching his own campaign for the Democratic nomination.
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As of the end of June, DeSantis had the most available cash for his 2024 White House campaign compared to other candidates. Between his campaign and affiliated political action committee, the Florida governor had $109.1 million at his disposal, providing him with substantial resources for a lengthy campaign. In comparison, Trump had $63.9 million, Biden had $48.4 million, and South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott had $38.3 million, surpassing all other candidates from both parties. Christie, for example, only had $7 million in available cash at the end of June, while Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, had just $2.9 million.
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