A major Republican donor announced Wednesday that he will not support former President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
Stephen Schwarzman, CEO, and co-founder of private-equity firm Blackstone, told Axios that he is “defecting” from Trump. Alongside Schwarzman, Ken Griffin, founder of the Citadel hedge fund and previous supporter of Trump policies, opted to endorse Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“America does better when its leaders are rooted in today and tomorrow, not today and yesterday,” Schwarzman said. “It is time for the Republican Party to turn to a new generation of leaders and I intend to support one of them in the presidential primaries.”
Trump announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election Tuesday, but many Republican leaders are waiting to “see how things go” in Congress before deciding if they will endorse him, according to Politico.
“Absolutely I’m going to be giving strong consideration to him. But I’m going to withhold an endorsement until we see where things go.” South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham told Politico. “I’ll tell you after Georgia.”
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Politico that “right now we’re working towards getting the Congress back.”
Republican Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz reported Monday that they would support a contested GOP primary, just one day before Trump announced his candidacy, according to The Texas Tribune. The senators are open to other options, but will support Trump if he becomes the Republican nominee.
“I’m sure I’ll support the nominee of the Republican Party, but I think there’s likely to be a competitive primary election,” Cornyn said, according to the Tribune.
Recent polls show Trump may not be the frontrunner in the Republican primaries; a YouGov poll, conducted following the midterm elections, showed that 23% of voters preferred DeSantis while only 20% said they preferred Trump.
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