Fundraising for Haley and DeSantis Campaigns Hits $1 Million Following Debate

The campaigns of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley announced Friday that they raised more than $1 million in the 24 hours after Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate.

The pair were widely considered as delivering the best performances in the latest debate that was whittled down to five candidates.

“We’ve raised more than $1 million post-debate — thank you to everyone who’s donated to our movement,” Haley said in a post to X in coordination with an email blast from her campaign.

DeSantis’ campaign sent an email blast to their supporters, extolling his performance in the third debate in Miami and the recent endorsement of Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds. DeSantis also picked up the support of at least 12 additional lawmakers since the debate.

“This is yet another example of how our fundraising continues to accelerate this quarter, and is a sign of our growing momentum following the historic endorsement of Kim Reynolds and a debate victory this week,” his campaign said in a statement.

DeSantis is heading back to Iowa on Friday, his campaign said.

The GOP Iowa caucuses are Jan. 15.

“Nikki raised over $1M in the 24 hours after the debate — it was their best small-donor fundraising day to date and comes on the heels of our best fundraising month [October],” her campaign said in a statement.

Haley and DeSantis are neck and neck for second place behind front-runner Donald Trump, who has skipped every debate so far and intends to skip next month’s, too. Trump is sitting at 56.5% among GOP voters, according to latest the FiveThirtyEight.com presidential polling average published Thursday. DeSantis is at 14.1% and Haley 8.7%.

The numbers are slightly better for DeSantis and Haley in Iowa, where Trump sits at 45.6%. DeSantis has 17.1% and Haley 13.9%, again according to FiveThirtyEight’s average.