Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

DeSantis exits presidential race, potentially boosting Nikki Haley’s support among anti-Trump Jewish Republicans

Nikki Haley has garnered support from a wide array of pro-Israel conservatives

(JTA) — Ron DeSantis’ decision to end his presidential campaign leaves Nikki Haley as the only serious challenger to Donald Trump, potentially consolidating her support among Jewish voters and donors who seek an alternative to the former president.

DeSantis announced his exit on Sunday after he came in a distant second last week in Iowa, the first nominating contest in the Republican primaries. The announcement capped a campaign in which the Florida governor was initially seen as the most serious threat to Trump but saw his support steadily decline as the primaries neared.

He had long staked out positions popular among pro-Israel conservatives and repeatedly traveled to Israel to demonstrate his support.  He has also aggressively taken on culture-war positions, including about abortion, LGBTQ rights and book bans, that have traditionally not resonated as much with Jewish voters. At one point, his campaign fired an aide who made a video promoting him that featured a Nazi symbol.

He has thrown his support behind Trump.

Haley, the former South Carolina governor and Trump’s first ambassador to the United Nations, who has close ties to the pro-Israel establishment, has been a favorite among Jewish and pro-Israel donors who want to avoid a second Trump-Biden matchup in November. She garnered more support than any other candidate from the leadership of the Republican Jewish Coalition, according to a Haaretz report last summer, and multiple prominent Jewish Republicans have organized fundraisers on her behalf.

Whether those fundraisers take place will likely depend on the outcome in New Hampshire. Trump currently has a double-digit lead in polls. After his decisive win in Iowa, he said during his victory speech that he would end the current conflict in Israel “very fast” if he becomes president, without elaborating on how he would do so.

This article originally appeared on JTA.org.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.