Haley's grassroots fundraising soars, but a top-dollar liberal donor wants to see 'path to victory'
Nikki Haley will need to demonstrate that there is a “new potential path to victory" over former President Donald Trump for the GOP nomination before she gets any more donations from billionaire Reid Hoffman.
Nikki Haley is enjoying a surge in small dollar, grassroots fundraising.
But following her 11-point loss to former President Donald Trump in New Hampshire's primary — which was seen by political pundits as her best shot at slowing down Trump's push for the GOP nomination — liberal megadonor and LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman appears to be one of the first wealthy donors who's apparently heading for an exit.
A top adviser to the megadonor told Fox News that a "new potential path to victory" would be needed to appear before sending any further contributions to Haley.
In the 24 hours after her runner-up finish to Trump in Tuesday's Republican presidential primary in New Hampshire, the former two-term South Carolina governor who later served as U.N. ambassador in the Trump administration hauled in $1 million in grassroots online donations.
As Fox News first reported on Thursday, Haley raked in another $1 million after she responded on social media to a warning Trump directed to GOP donors to stop contributing to his remaining major rival for the 2024 Republican nomination. Hours later, the campaign touted that total 48-hour haul had reached $2.6 million.
Haley is campaigning this weekend in her home state, which on Feb. 24 will hold the next major primary on the Republican nominating calendar.
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She will then head to New York City early next week to meet with some top Republican donors as she aims to replenish her campaign coffers.
Sources in Haley's political orbit told Fox News that a fundraiser on Tuesday co-hosted by billionaires Leonard Stern, Cliff Asness, Stanley Druckenmiller, Ken Langone and Henry Kravis remains on her schedule.
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It is one of roughly 10 fundraisers with major Republican donors on Haley's itinerary over the next couple of weeks.
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Hoffman, a supporter of President Biden who contributed over three-quarters of a million dollars last year to the Biden Victory Fund, gave a quarter of a million dollars last month to SFA Fund, Inc, the Haley-aligned super PAC.
"Prior to the primaries, we made an investment in Governor Haley because we saw that her performance in New Hampshire might give her a path to defeating Donald Trump," Hoffman’s political philanthropy adviser Dmitri Mehlhorn said in a statement to Fox News.
With the New Hampshire primary now in the rearview mirror, Mehlhorn said that "it is still possible that Governor Haley will be able to persuade voters that Trump is no longer stable and cannot carry their banner into the fall campaign."
But he emphasized that "before recommending another investment at this later stage in the process, however, I would need to see a new potential path to victory given that she did not win New Hampshire."
"The only way I can see a path happening is if Trump has a ‘senior moment,' and she's able to exploit it to persuade GOP voters that he's lost it," Mehlhorn added.
Hoffman has long been a vocal critic of the former president. Mehlhorn said that "if it becomes clear that the GOP has decided to nominate Trump, we have no choice but to turn our attention to defeating Trump in the general election."
Trump and his allies have repeatedly blasted Haley since Hoffman's contribution to her super PAC grabbed headlines in early December.
