Democrat billionaire donor Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, paused donations to former Gov. Nikki Haley’s bid for the Republican nomination, a source familiar with the matter told CNBC Wednesday.
The funding pause represents the first Haley donor to cut his support after Tuesday. Haley was the establishment’s favorite to attack former President Donald Trump, the de facto GOP nominee.
Hoffman previously gave $250,000 to a pro-Haley super PAC, the New York Times reported.
“If America is to avoid another Trump presidency, it will be because Trump loses an election next year. If he is to lose, it will either be to Nikki Haley in the primary, or Joe Biden in the general,” Hoffman wrote in December.
Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn Corp., walks to the morning session during the Allen & Co. Media and Technology Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, US, on Friday, July 14, 2023. The summit is typically a hotbed for etching out mergers over handshakes, but could take on a much different tone this year against the backdrop of lackluster deal volume, inflation and higher interest rates. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Hoffman also said he donated to Haley’s GOP bid after listening to JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who demanded the elites support her.
It appears Trump disarmed the donor class’s control over the GOP electoral process after winning in New Hampshire. The New York Times acknowledged the donor class totally lost control of the Republican Party on Tuesday night and are now “a desperate group of bystanders” after Trump torched Haley in New Hampshire.
The donor class spent more than $167 million in Iowa and New Hampshire against Trump. Yet Pro-Haley suppers failed to bring their candidate within single digits of Trump’s massive victory. While pro-Trump spending only amounted to 34.1 million in Iowa and New Hampshire, pro-Haley wasted $31 million in New Hampshire alone to finish second.
“Tuesday night’s results showed that the time is coming to sit shiva for the Republican Party of the Bushes, Cheneys and Romneys. And the donor class that once played an outsize role in shaping the party is now a desperate group of bystanders,” Lisa Lerer, Maggie Haberman, and Jonathan Swan of the Times wrote.
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.
