Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley wasted $76.4 million in losing efforts to defeat former President Donald Trump in the first three GOP primary contests: Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.
The massive amount of money spent in the first three primaries of the 2024 cycle shows how strong Trump’s grassroots support is around the nation.
The money spent also reveals the number of resources the Republican Party did not spend on defeating President Joe Biden.
Leading up to Saturday’s election. Haley claimed she will not drop out of the race until Super Tuesday, which is March 5.
Below are the funds spent by political action committees and her campaign in the first three contests:
- South Carolina: $8.4 million
- New Hampshire: $31 million
- Iowa: $37 million
After Haley’s defeat Saturday in South Carolina, it is unclear how much money she will be able to raise to continue her campaign for the next few weeks. Haley and her super PAC only had $15 million cash on hand at the end of January, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
In January, the donor class began to cut off all future funding of Haley’s campaign after she lost the critical Republican primary in New Hampshire, multiple advisers to political megadonors told the Washington Post.
Democrat billionaire donor Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, paused donations to pro-Haley PACs. “We invested in Governor Haley when we thought she had a shot of winning. I’d need to see a new case, with new evidence, to persuade me that more money could help her win now,” Hoffman adviser Dmitri Mehlhorn told the Wall Street Journal.
Reid Hoffman, chairman and co-founder of LinkedIn Corp., on June 12, 2014. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The financial setbacks are expected to increase for Haley, one political megadonor adviser told the Post. “Without a New Hampshire win, she doesn’t have the momentum she needed to win South Carolina,” the adviser said. “And without a lane to South Carolina, she has no chance on Super Tuesday.”
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
