Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley’s campaign reported raising $11.6 million in the third fundraising quarter, of which $9.1 million can be spent in the 2024 Republican presidential primary election. Having received contributions from nearly 40,000 new donors, the Haley campaign has now totaled $26 million in donations from over 100,000 individuals.
The uptick in donations comes after Haley’s poll numbers have surged in key states. The former South Carolina governor now finds herself in third place in Iowa and second place in New Hampshire and her home state, according to the RealClearPolitics average. In national polls, she currently sits in third place behind Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who himself trails former president Donald Trump.
In a hypothetical general election matchup between Haley and president Joe Biden, she performs well: A CNN/SSRS poll released last month had her as the only Republican presidential candidate to beat Biden in a potential head-to-head contest by a total greater than the survey’s margin of error, leading the current president by six percentage points, and a September NBC News poll shows her in front of Biden by five. A recently released Susquehanna survey covering the key state of Pennsylvania has Haley narrowly beating Biden by one percentage point, while Trump trails the current president by two.
At this point, DeSantis and Haley have emerged as the two most likely candidates to serve as an alternative to Trump once voting begins in January, but their financial numbers draw a contrast. DeSantis has outraised Haley overall throughout the campaign. As the Dispatch’s David Drucker reported, the DeSantis campaign received between $10 million and $15 million in the third quarter, with his affiliated Never Back Down PAC raising somewhere between $10 million and $20 million over that same period.
Despite DeSantis’ fundraising edge, his campaign has significantly less cash eligible to be spent in the 2024 primaries than Haley, with about $5 million remaining compared to Haley’s $9.1 million.
Former president Trump has consistently been the most well-funded candidate in the 2024 Republican contest. He announced recently that he raised $45.5 million during the third quarter and has $36 million on hand that can be spent throughout the rest of the primary campaign.