Wall Street executives have been speaking with strategists and fellow donors to address a question that’s been dogging them since November 2020: Who are they going to support to take on former President Donald Trump in the 2024 GOP primary?
For some, the answer is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, according to people familiar with the conversations. DeSantis is the only Republican who’s polled in second place to Trump in recent primary polls.
DeSantis has yet to officially declare his candidacy for president. Trump, meanwhile, is raising millions of dollars off an indictment brought against him by a Manhattan grand jury. A super PAC urging DeSantis to run for president said it has raised $30 million since its launch less than a month ago. The first GOP primary debate is scheduled for August.
Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman is seriously considering backing the Florida governor for president, according to a person familiar with his thinking. A spokeswoman for Schwarzman did not return a request for comment.
Schwarzman, who spent millions trying to get Trump reelected in 2020, had said in a statement to CNBC that he believed it was “time for the Republican party to turn to a new generation of leaders” and that he planned to back one of those contenders in the GOP primary for president. Ken Griffin, the billionaire CEO of investment giant Citadel, has said that he plans to back to DeSantis if he gets into the race.
Many Republican fundraisers on Wall Street, however, aren’t so eager to jump in. Some fear backing a candidate that could lose to Trump. Others are worried about getting in the middle of a bitter battle between their favored candidate and the former president, according to donors and political strategists who work for wealthy financiers.
“They don’t want to get in a middle of a dog fight,” a Morgan Stanley executive, who’s donated to Republicans for years and is sitting out of the primary fight for now, told CNBC. “No one wants to be on the losing side,” the person…
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