January 21 - 2024 campaign updates

Following Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' exit from the GOP presidential primary, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said she hopes to bring in some of DeSantis’ supporters by pitching herself as the most electable candidate, arguing voters backed DeSantis in part because “they don’t want to lose.”  

“I think that they love America, and I think they want a new generational leader,” Haley told CNN's Dana Bash after a campaign stop in Seabrook, New Hampshire.

“Look at the fact that we could actually win, and I think that's what Ron DeSantis’ supporters want. They don't want to lose,” she added. 

Haley said she plans to stay in the race through Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary and next month’s primary in her home state of South Carolina.

Haley said she sees President Joe Biden as equally unfit for the presidency as former President Donald Trump, leaning into her pitch for a new generation of leadership by arguing “if either one of them was good, I wouldn’t be running.” 

Former President Donald Trump said Sunday he is "very honored" to have the endorsement of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis after he announced he is suspending his presidential campaign. 

Trump and his campaign team had been preparing for DeSantis to drop out of the race over the past 24 hours, according to a senior adviser. Still, DeSantis did not give the former president's team a heads-up before the endorsement.

President Joe Biden’s campaign had, at one point, binders of research on all Republican candidates, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. And they had taken opportunities earlier in the race to lambast the governor’s record on education and “anti-woke” policies in Florida.

But it had long become clear to Biden’s advisers that DeSantis was unlikely to become the Republican nominee, and they have increasingly turned their attention to Donald Trump as their likeliest rival in November, with less attention paid to other contenders.

While the Biden campaign responds in near-real time to Trump at his rallies and his media appearances on Twitter, they have mostly ignored DeSantis for a while.

This Biden campaign is eager for the race to become a one-on-one choice — fulfilling Biden’s long-stated entreaty to voters to not “compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative.”

The campaign has been grappling with the research showing many undecided voters still don’t believe Trump will emerge as the nominee. Until those voters begin paying more attention, Biden advisers believe it will be difficult to convince people of the stakes of the election.

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.