Despite a punishing loss in New Hampshire, Nikki Haley has nearly a dozen fundraisers scheduled between now and the South Carolina primary — and insiders are now wondering how many of these shindigs will actually happen.
On Jan. 30 in New York City, billionaires including Leonard Stern, Cliff Asness, Stanley Druckenmiller, Ken Langone and Henry Kravis are co-hosting an event for the former South Carolina governor.
On Feb. 6, Silicon Valley mogul Tim Draper is hosting Haley in Atherton, Calif. On Feb. 15, Haley also is slated to be feted in Dallas by real estate tycoon Harlan Crow, according to an invitation reviewed by On The Money.
Elsewhere, Haley is scheduled for fundraisers from Greenville, SC to Houston to San Antonio, with hosts including real estate magnate Ross Perot Jr., French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ex-wife Cécilia Attias, Susan Rockefeller, GOP strategist Karl Rove’s wife Karen, and former US Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), according to invitations obtained by On The Money.
That’s despite the fact that Haley, also a former US ambassador to the United Nations, trails Trump by 30 percentage points in her home state of South Carolina.
Many donors admit her chances of winning the nomination are slim to none — and some insiders say that for billionaires with cash to spare, supporting Haley may be more about impressing friends with a cocktail party than betting she can pull off an upset.
Indeed, for some hedge fund managers and venture capitalists, it’s far more important to show their friends they tried to stop Trump than actually bet on a winning horse, sources add.
Sources add that Haley bundlers see their support as a sort of “vanity project” to show they will support a centrist candidate — and note that the cash outlay isn’t even in a rounding error in their bank accounts.
Other sources, however, say that some event hosts are re-considering whether it’s worth it to throw good money after bad when they believe Haley has no chance of winning.
“They want to show her respect and not cancel the day after so we won’t know what happens for another couple days,” one source said. But on the other hand, “It’s a weird dance where people are figuring out how to not upset anyone.
“Some of these people viscerally hate Trump but they’re also some of the most sophisticated and successful Americans… and they know when it’s time to fold,” another source added.
Last week, Ken Langone said of Haley, “If she doesn’t get traction in New Hampshire, you don’t throw money down a rathole.”
However, he didn’t go so far as to say he would step away from the fundraiser if he is disappointed by her performance. As of Wednesday, the Jan. 30 event in New York was moving forward.
Part of the new calculation is also trying to avoid the ire of former President Trump — the man who is now expected to nab the nomination and stands a shot of becoming president again.
That is compounded by the fact that if Trump were to drop out, Haley doesn’t necessarily get the nomination — it’s the delegates at the convention who ultimately decide and vote on a replacement. They may select someone who embraces the MAGA agenda as opposed to choosing a more centrist candidate like Haley.
On The Money previously reported that as Haley nabbed endorsements from Republican kingmakers — like the Koch brothers — some wealthy Democratic donors were also quietly funneling cash to her campaign.
Deep-pocketed participants viewed the unusual diversion of funds as an “opposition effort” against another Trump presidency, according to insiders. Haley raised $24 million in the last three months of 2023.
Other fundraiser hosts include hedge fund managers, venture capitalists, partners at law firms like Kirkland Ellis and Paul Weiss as well as former and current executives at Meta, Google, and UBS.
CEO of JPMorgan Chase’s wealth management division Kristin Lemkau is also involved with the New York fundraiser for Haley. Last year her boss, Jamie Dimon, encouraged others on Wall Street to support Nikki Haley. More recently, he has also defended Donald Trump as “kind of right” about a lot of his policies.
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