Schwarzman Waits to Decide 2024 Pick While Trump Rivals Woo Donors

Stephanie Lai and Amanda Gordon
·3 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- Blackstone Group’s Steve Schwarzman said he is still deciding whether he will publicly back former President Donald Trump or one of his rivals but was watching for any election “surprises” as he weighs his support.

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“I’m in the let’s wait and see how this works. I’m not into the hypothetical world yet as much as you’d like me to be,” he said in an interview from Davos on CNBC, when pressed on whether he would back Trump.

“We’ll see what happens. There are always surprises in the elections,” he added.

Schwarzman is one of several major Republican donors, along with Ken Griffin of Citadel and Miriam Adelson, who have so far declined to back any candidate for president even as Trump marches toward the nomination.

Nabbing their support would be a crucial boost for the candidates seeking to block Trump after the former president cruised to victory in Iowa, the first nominating state.

The Blackstone founder’s comments on the race have been closely watched. He previously said he hoped to support a candidate from a new generation of leaders for the Republican party in the primaries.

Schwarzman gave $35.5 million to candidates for federal office in 2020, with the vast majority going to Republicans. But after Republicans underperformed in the 2022 midterms, he said he would not support Trump in 2024.

Schwarzman’s comments come days ahead of the Jan. 23 New Hampshire primary, which is former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley’s best chance to challenge Trump, after losing in Iowa on Monday by more than 30 percentage points to the former president. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who finished just ahead of Haley in Iowa — and a distant second behind Trump — has spent little time campaigning in New Hampshire and is polling in the single digits there.

Haley has gotten significant interest from Wall Street executives, but she hasn’t been able to translate that into contributions from some of the largest GOP donors, including Schwarzman and Griffin. Her campaign is trying to bolster its fundraising to help prolong her bid.

New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, who has endorsed the former UN ambassador, briefed about 150 Haley donors on a call Tuesday morning, reassuring them of the campaign’s strategy in his state, according to a person on the call who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss its details.

Sununu outlined the campaign schedule and encouraged people to give more — and several did — according to one donor. He also assured them Haley’s third place finish with about 19% of the vote in Iowa was a victory for the campaign. Haley was polling in the single digits in the state just a few months ago.

Donors voiced to one another that they were looking at New Hampshire as a critical turning point for her campaign, the person said.

A poll from the University of New Hampshire for CNN released earlier this month found Haley closing the gap with Trump. She had 32% support, compared with the former president’s 39% in the state. DeSantis only had 5% in the survey.

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