GOP megadonors once skeptical about former President Donald Trump are reconsidering putting their support behind him in the 2024 election, according to NBC News.
Ahead of the 2024 election, some business allies of Trump’s have been working to convince distanced donors to reconsider their support of the former president, according to CNBC News. Now, almost a year out from the presidential election, GOP megadonors have “resigned themselves to Trump as the nominee” and are starting to back the former president once again, according to NBC News. (RELATED: ‘His Odds Get Better’: Trump Trending Ahead Of Biden In Key Battleground States, Nationwide)
“Why? It is easy, I want to win,” a GOP donor who was considering other candidates after previously backing Trump, told NBC News. “They are moving back to President Trump, and I want to win.”
Ed Broyhill, a longtime GOP donor who was Trump’s North Carolina finance chairman in 2020, and Harold Hamm, who was once considered for an advisor role before having a fallout with Trump, are among those who have started to support the former president financially after considering other options.
“There is no doubt in my mind that Donald Trump will be the nominee of our party,” Broyhill told the outlet. “The grassroots are a solid foundation for Donald Trump.”
Hamm, who previously co-hosted an Oklahoma City fundraiser for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and contributed to former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley’s campaign, made a recent contribution to Trump though his team told NBC News that it doesn’t indicate any shift in his support.
“He has supported a wide slate of candidates that he believes would make a good president,” Kristin Thomas, the chief communications officer at Hamm’s Continental Resources, told NBC News, adding that “nothing has changed.”
Supporters of Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump cheer before an event on October 23, 2023 in Derry, New Hampshire. Trump officially filed for the first-in-the-nation primary on Monday at the New Hampshire State House. (Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images)
Ed McMullen, former ambassador to Switzerland during the Trump administration who is now raising money for his campaign, told NBC that donors have recently called him telling him they are now backing the former president.
“Absolutely, multiple donors who were very large contributors — I’m talking DeSantis supporters and Haley supporters — are coming around,” McMullen told the outlet. “Overwhelmingly, they are savvy donors who are smart, wealthy people. They have concluded that putting money into this primary is a waste of money.”
In early polling and a hypothetical matchup, Trump is leading President Joe Biden in key swing states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, while he is also leading nationally anywhere from two points to five points.
“I have for sure. A lot of traditional money is beginning to move to Trump,” a longtime DeSantis donor said about the move to back Trump.