January 21 - 2024 campaign updates

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' short trip back to Florida on Thursday was a resetting moment for him where, for the first time, he seriously entertained conversations about dropping out, according to a source with knowledge of the matter. 

DeSantis met with a very small group of his closest advisers, collected his thoughts, and ultimately "determined it’s in his best interest to get back to governing," the source said. They described the mood around DeSantis' advisers as "disappointing, but the belief had set in" that his campaign was over.

DeSantis called top donors personally Sunday and told them that he woke up in the morning and decided there was no path to winning and it was time to get out, two Republican donors with knowledge of the calls told CNN. 

DeSantis told the donors there was no reason to waste his time and money staying in a race with former President Donald Trump, recalling how he kept hearing from attendees at his events that, “If it wasn’t for Trump, I would vote for you.”

The two sources said DeSantis knows he is young — and if he is to have a chance at winning the GOP presidential nomination in 2028, he needed to endorse Trump.

CNN's Steve Contorno reports:

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, reacting to Ron DeSantis ending his presidential campaign Sunday, said the Florida governor "ran a great race," while her campaign said his exit will mean little for Haley's chances in the election.

She added, “This comes down to: What do you want? Do you want more of the same or do you want something new?”

Haley’s campaign says it does not think DeSantis dropping out means much for Haley because they believe that DeSantis supporters are likely to split evenly for Donald Trump and Haley. They also point to how low DeSantis is polling, meaning that any support he has isn't hugely significant.

Campaign officials say this means there is truly only one other option now for voters who don't want Trump or President Joe Biden. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his team did not give former President Donald Trump or his senior advisers a heads up that DeSantis was going to endorse Trump, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN. 

Earlier Sunday, one of Trump’s senior advisers was asked by reporters about a potential endorsement from DeSantis. “That would be news to me,” the adviser quipped. 

Former President Donald Trump and his campaign team had been preparing for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to drop out of the race over the past 24 hours.

Trump is expected to release a statement on social media addressing the suspension of DeSantis' campaign, two sources familiar with the discussions told CNN.

"The rumors were hot and heavy throughout the weekend, so we had expected this," a senior Trump campaign adviser told CNN shortly after DeSantis announced he was dropping out of the race.

Trump viciously attacked DeSantis throughout his White House bid, focusing the majority of his attacks on the governor in the lead up to the Iowa caucuses. Many of those attacks stemmed from Trump's personal animosity toward DeSantis for being "disloyal" by running against him after Trump had endorsed DeSantis for governor in 2017, according to multiple Trump campaign advisers and people close to the former president.

A big question now is whether Trump can look beyond his personal grievances and view DeSantis as a potential surrogate, Trump's allies and advisers said.

"It's always been personal with Trump," a person close to Trump told CNN, noting that the former president and his team didn't just want to hurt DeSantis's presidential candidacy, but also his political future beyond 2024.

Immediately after DeSantis suspended his campaign, a Trump adviser maintained that despite DeSantis's endorsement of Trump, it's still unclear whether the former president may ultimately embrace the Florida governor moving forward.

The decision by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to end his presidential campaign came after days of conversations with donors and as his campaign and a trio of allied super PACs spent tens of millions of dollars organizing and advertising for his bid. 

DeSantis and his wife, Casey, made the decision Sunday afternoon, surprising many of his rank-and-file staffers and supporters. 

“The money wasn’t there to continue,” one top DeSantis donor told CNN. 

According to AdImpact data, through Sunday, the DeSantis campaign and three super PACs formed to support him – Never Back Down, Fight Right and Good Fight – had spent more than $60 million on pro-DeSantis advertising. 

Never Back Down, the first super PAC formed to support DeSantis’ White House bid, had faced criticism of its resource management, and went through significant staff turmoil. 

That’s despite the fact that the super PAC initially received more than $80 million that DeSantis had amassed during his time as governor of Florida, a massive stockpile of funds that allowed the group to hit the ground running with lavish TV ads, a large staff and even to provide some campaign infrastructure. 

Including that haul, Federal Election Commission records show that Never Back Down raised $130 million during the first half of 2023, and entered July of last year with nearly $100 million in cash on hand. 

Meanwhile, the DeSantis campaign itself had raised more than $31 million through midyear, per FEC records, but a portion of those funds were available for use only in the general election. And the campaign entered the fourth quarter of last year facing a real cash crunch, with only $5 million in cash on hand for use in the presidential primary as of September 30. The campaign had not yet announced how much it raised in the fourth quarter of last year. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis endorsed former President Donald Trump in the video ending his campaign.

“I'm proud to have delivered on 100% of my promises and I will not stop now. It's clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance. ... While I've had disagreements with Donald Trump, such as on the coronavirus pandemic and his elevation of Anthony Fauci, Trump is superior to the current incumbent Joe Biden. That is clear," he said in his video on X.

“I signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee and I will honor that pledge. He has my endorsement, because we can't go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear or repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism that Nikki Haley represents.”

At this point there are no plans for DeSantis to appear with Trump in New Hampshire before Tuesday's primary, according to two sources familiar. One source cautioned that could always change. 

A CNN poll released earlier Sunday found Trump with 50% support among likely Republican primary voters in the New Hampshire, while his closest competitor, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, stood at 39%. 

DeSantis stood at just 6% in the poll, below the 10% minimum support he would need to win delegates there per the Republican Party’s rules.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who entered the Republican presidential primary as Donald Trump’s greatest threat, announced Sunday he is ending his White House bid nearly a week after his underwhelming performance in Iowa.

In a video on X, DeSantis said there was no clear path to presidential success for his campaign.

“If there was anything I could do to produce a favorable outcome, more campaign stops, more interviews, I would do it, but I can't ask our supporters to volunteer their time and donate their resources if we don't have a clear path to victory. Accordingly, I am today suspending my campaign,” DeSantis said.

“Winston Churchill once remarked that success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts. While this campaign has ended, the mission continues down here in Florida. We will continue to show the country, how to lead. Thank you and God bless."

It’s a devastating blow to the promising career of a once-rising GOP star, and his failure to reach the lofty expectation of his candidacy has already sparked a wave of second-guessing from close allies and advisers. Some believe DeSantis took too long to attack Trump. Others think his team underestimated former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

More remain convinced that there was nothing DeSantis could have done to wrestle the party from Trump’s loyal and sizable followers.

DeSantis is in Florida tonight following his decision to suspend his campaign, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

CNN's Jessica Dean and Kit Maher contributed to this report.

Video: Dana Bash calls it a stunning decline

As we approach the New Hampshire primary, here’s a look at the participation rules for Republican nominating contests between now and the end of March.

Thirty-six states and territories will hold Republican nominating contests between New Hampshire on Tuesday and Louisiana on March 23. 

Of those, 11 are closed, meaning only registered party members can participate (although some allow party switching on the day of the contest), and 22 are either open to all voters or semi-open, meaning that Republicans and unaffiliated voters can participate.

In many states with open primaries, voters don’t formally register with a party with the state. Information for three contests isn’t currently available.

While the early states are important for building momentum, the bulk of the delegates will be awarded in March. 

By the end of Super Tuesday, on March 5, 1,205 of the Republican convention’s 2,429 delegates will have been awarded, or 99% of the 1,215 needed to win the nomination. 

Former President Donald Trump defended his mocking of GOP rival Nikki Haley’s given name, telling Fox News in an interview that aired Sunday that it’s “a little bit of a takeoff on her name … wherever she may come from.”

Haley is the daughter of Indian immigrants and was born Nimarata Nikki Randhawa. She has gone by “Nikki” since her childhood and took her husband Michael Haley’s last name after they married.

Trump first referred to Haley’s first name by misspelling it as “Nimrada” in a post to his social media platform Truth Social last week and later referred to her as “Nimbra,” in the latest examples of him using racist dog whistles to attack his opponents.

“I do that with a lot of people, like (former Arkansas Gov. Asa) Hutchinson. I mean, he was polling at zero for one year, and I called him — rather than Asa, I called him Aida Hutchinson, and it just felt good to me,” Trump told Brett Baier during an interview on the sidelines of his rally in Manchester on Saturday.

During the interview, Trump also responded to Haley’s claim that the name-calling is a sign the former president feels threatened by her, arguing he’s “not concerned with her at all.”