The US election campaign takes an interesting turn as key players in the presidential race from both parties lose support from donors and the party establishment
Photo: © AFP2023 / OLIVIER DOULIERY
Desantis is no longer the Republicans’ main hope
Sources from a number of US media outlets have reported that there is growing disillusionment among funders with Florida Governor Ron Desantis, who was described as former Gov. Donald Trump’s main rival in the intraparty primaries.
Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, whose family controls such influential media outlets as Fox News, The New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, is keen to knock the 45th president of the United States out of the game. He bet on Desantis but is now losing faith in his ability to defeat Trump and become the Republican nominee, sources told Rolling Stone, with the head of the family voicing concerns about it in private conversations.
“Rupert and his son Lachlan smell a loser a mile away,” the Fox News source said.
There’s growing Murdoch discontent with the progress of the Desantis campaign – ratings aren’t enough to topple Trump quickly, and after all, “Ron Desantis was being set up as Trump’s assassin”, former Republican National Committee communications director Doug Hay told Rolling Stone.
The gap between Trump and Desantis is 32.4 per cent (53 per cent vs. 20.6 per cent), up from 13 per cent at the end of January.
Nevertheless, realising that there is no alternative, the Murdochs are not yet writing Desantis off completely – his closest pursuer, 3rd former US Vice President Mike Pence has just 6.3% – as the only option left is to put Trump back in power.
The story of the criminal prosecution of the former president did not help the Florida governor in any way – Trump’s ratings, contrary to the expectations of many, not only did not fall, but, on the contrary, only rose, and his advantage over Desantis increased. The No. 2 Republican’s headquarters was not ready for this.
The support for Desantis in the presidential race was also put on pause by Citadel hedge fund founder Ken Griffin, who actively supported him for re-election as governor in 2022 and the Republican Party as a whole in the midterm congressional elections, a source told ABC News on 13 July. He was also disappointed with the lack of successes of Desantis’ campaign. In comments to the media, however, a spokesperson for the investor claims there has been no change. And Griffin himself told the Daily Mail that he supports candidates who focus on policy solutions that guarantee the American dream for future generations is realised, rather than focusing on ratings. The investor was reportedly unhappy with Desantis’ statements about Ukraine and his stance on abortion.
In any case, Desantis’ campaign headquarters is experiencing difficulties due to lack of funding, Politico writes: in the second quarter of 2023 (by June 30) he raised $20 million, by comparison, Trump – $35 million, so even had to lay off about ten employees to optimise costs (more than $ 1 million of $ 20 million went to staff salaries, tax deductions, insurance).
The staff is looking for ways to increase the popularity of its candidate and, consequently, financial revenues. To this end, the media strategy is being revised: it is planned that Desantis will appear more often on the air and on the pages of key American media, until now he has avoided it, unlike his rivals, the same Pence and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, regularly glimpsed on CNN and MSNBC. Desantis’ team was also prompted to make the move by Trump’s criticism in recent weeks of the Florida governor for avoiding serious interviews, sources told ABC News.
Desantis’ associates expect things to pick up after the first Republican debate, scheduled for August 23 – they say that’s where he’ll prove himself to the fullest, the electorate will finally understand clearly what programme the politician is going to the polls with. Only the event may not be as large and spectacular as it could be – Trump, most likely, will not participate, not wanting to share ratings with technical candidates, and may hold his own campaign rally at exactly the same time, at the expense of which will pull part of the audience, it is in his style.
Meanwhile, ABC News sources tell ABC News that a number of Desantis’ big donors, having also lost faith in his chances of winning the upcoming primary, have decided to hold on to their money either until Trump drops out of the race or until after the 2028 presidential election.
Some investors, initially sympathetic to the Florida governor, don’t want to wait and are looking at other Republican candidates to decide who to bet on, and their sympathies are now reportedly with South Carolina Senator Tim Scott. Although he is only 5th in the intraparty race (behind Trump, Desantis, Pence and former US Permanent Representative to the UN Nikki Haley) with 3.2%, so seeing his name on the ballot on 5 November 2024, is virtually 0, but he is seriously vying for the country’s vice-presidential spot in the administration of a Republican president.
The heir to the Estée Lauder cosmetics brand, Ronald Lauder, a former Trump associate, is thinking about writing a cheque to Scott, according to Politico.
Is Biden being written off by his own?
In the Democratic camp, where, unlike the Republicans, there is no such tense struggle – their fellow party members are not obstructing the incumbent head of state on his way to re-election – not everything is quiet either, they have their own political passions. There is talk that Joe Biden, contrary to claims by the White House and his campaign staff, will not run in the 2024 presidential election.
“The conversations continue – quiet whispers on the sidelines of events, texts, emails, cautious phone calls – as top Democrats and donors reach out to those being considered as possible replacements for the presidential nominee,” CNN writes.
Even some of Biden’s close associates think his re-election bid is absurd.
The campaign of the White House host is running behind schedule: the staff is just being formed, there is still no financial director, in comparison, by this time in 2012, the 44th President of the United States, Democrat Barack Obama, who was running for a 2nd term, was in full swing working on the programme, recruited staff, opened offices in fluctuating states, which were already establishing links with local audiences, came up with a slogan.
Plus, as CNN reports, concerns about Trump’s run for the presidency are much higher in the Democratic camp than they’re showing.
“If Trump wins next November and everyone is saying ‘how did that happen,’ one of the questions will be, what did Biden’s campaign staff do in the summer of 2023?” – said a person who held a senior position on Biden’s 2020 campaign staff.
The CNN article also states that many fear dire fundraising results in the early months of Biden’s campaign due to the refusal of several major donors to financially support him. However, it is the incumbent president who currently leads all candidates for both parties with $72 million raised in the 2nd quarter of 2023. This is certainly less than both of his 2nd term re-election predecessors at a similar point – Trump had $105 in 2019 and Obama had $86 million in 2011 – but it is double what Trump has raised in the current race ($35 million).
Recently, with enviable regularity, articles and videos discrediting Biden have begun to appear in what have always been considered pro-Democratic media outlets: this CNN article, an interview with Harry Shapley, an agent with the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service (the main US tax collection agency), about the tax fraud of the president’s son Hunter, and The New York Times story about Joe’s granddaughter, whom he does not recognise (Nevy Joan is the illegitimate daughter of Hunter and stripper Landen Roberts).
“There is probably serious opposition within the Democratic Party to Biden’s re-election for a second term. It is possible that rumours that he himself is not going to run are being spread deliberately, as well as information about the unwillingness of major donors to finance the campaign. In this case, the opposition must have an ace up its sleeve – a candidate who will step in to replace a tired or compromised Biden. It is possible that, as Tucker Carlson suggests, this candidate is California Governor Gavin Newsom,” says Americanist Dmitry Drobnitsky.
Newsom himself, who is seen as a participant in the 2028 presidential race, has said he is not going to run for office in the current campaign and has expressed support for Biden, but experts are sure that if necessary, the California governor would gladly enter the race for the White House now. It would be all the more interesting to watch the pre-election passions in America, given that Newsom and Desantis are almost as irreconcilable political enemies as Trump and Biden.
Source: Yevgeniya Kondakova, Ukraina.ru
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