Top Republican Party donors, including some of former President Donald Trump’s highest-dollar fundraisers in 2020, are reportedly losing interest in a 2024 White House comeback bid in the aftermath of the House’s Jan. 6 committee hearings.
Multiple prominent GOP financiers have set their sights elsewhere, weighing other Republicans and hoping that Trump decides to sit out 2024, according to CNBC.
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One Trump-skeptical fundraiser who is backing down-ballot Republicans said, “Donors are very concerned that Trump is the one Republican who can lose in 2024.” And another noted that in the wake of explosive Jan. 6 committee hearings outlining Trump’s involvement in attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, “I don’t think any major donor with business interests would support a Trump presidential run.”
Top donors have also been holding regular meetings to discuss 2024 contenders that they are considering supporting, with Trump rarely mentioned, according to CNBC.
Beneficiaries of a realignment among GOP donors include former Vice President Mike Pence and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Both men, considered leading Republican presidential contenders if Trump decides against running, have dramatically stepped up their fundraising apparatuses. DeSantis has raised over $124 million ostensibly for his reelection campaign, an exorbitant sum for a governor’s race he is expected to win easily. And Pence has been working the donor circuit, recently headlining a $5,000-per-ticket New York State Conservative Party event. The former vice president is also set to host a large fundraiser for Advancing American Freedom, a political organization he controls, in September.
Others, such as Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), have reportedly also begun reaching out to Trump’s former donors to gauge support for a presidential run.
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Of course, Trump is no stranger to running and winning presidential campaigns with limited support from traditional Republican donors. Many of the fundraisers who bankrolled the former president’s 2020 campaign froze him out in 2016. And Trump’s main political action committee, Save America PAC, recently reported having more than $110 million cash on hand, leaving him financially well positioned for another presidential campaign.
The former president also continues to wield strength among grassroots donors despite wealthy donors’ attention being largely focused on the GOP’s attempt to take back Congress in the midterm elections.
