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2024 Presidential Election Who Is Running? Issues Tracker Fourth G.O.P. Debate Trump’s 2025 Plans Listen to ‘The Run-Up’

Top Democratic Donor, Reid Hoffman,

Gives $250,000 to a Nikki Haley
Super PAC
Mr. Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, has funded an array of
anti-Trump candidates and causes.

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The political team for Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, asked a super PAC
supporting Nikki Haley if it would take money from the billionaire, given that he is a
Democrat who supports President Biden. The super PAC said yes. Brendan
McDermid/Reuters

By Shane Goldmacher

Dec. 5, 2023, 11:43 a.m. ET

When Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, urged

Democratic donors last week to rally behind Nikki Haley to provide
Republican voters an alternative to former President Donald J.
Trump , it seemed a far-fetched plea.

But at least one of the Democratic Party’s biggest financiers has

already done exactly that.

Reid Hoffman, the billionaire co-founder of LinkedIn and a major

Democratic donor, recently gave $250,000 to a super PAC
supporting Ms. Haley, the former South Carolina governor who has
gained momentum in recent weeks in the 2024 Republican primary
race. The donation, which has not been previously reported, was
confirmed by Dmitri Mehlhorn, a political adviser to Mr. Hoffman.

The pro-Haley super PAC, SFA Fund Inc., was asked specifically by
Mr. Hoffman’s political team if it would take money from Mr.
Hoffman, given that he is a Democrat who actively supports
President Biden , Mr. Mehlhorn said. The super PAC, he added, said
yes.

The pro-Haley super PAC did not immediately respond to a request

for comment.

SFA Fund Inc. has been one of the biggest players in the 2024
Republican primary race, spending more than $33 million on
advertising and other expenses. Its biggest contributors in the first
half of the year were Jan Koum, a co-founder of WhatsApp, who
gave $5 million, and the venture capitalist Tim Draper, who gave
$1.25 million.

Mr. Hoffman has financially backed an array of anti-Trump

candidates and causes. He helped fund the lawsuit by E. Jean
Carroll , the writer who sued Mr. Trump for rape and defamation. In
May, a Manhattan jury found Mr. Trump liable for sexually abusing
and defaming her .

The extra money will help Ms. Haley’s super PAC buy more
television ads as she battles to separate herself from Gov. Ron
DeSantis of Florida and close the gap in polling with Mr. Trump.
But such cross-party giving is rare and could also risk a backlash.
Even before Mr. Hoffman’s donation was made public, Mr. Trump Editors’ Picks
had seized on coverage of Mr. Dimon’s comments urging
Democrats to back Ms. Haley and used it in fund-raising messages. Is It Too Late to Get
a Flu Shot?
“While globalist special interest donors from both parties forge an
unholy alliance to beat us, I’m calling on our grass roots donors like
I’m White. Should I
YOU to fight back,” Mr. Trump wrote in a fund-raising email on Repatriate My
African Art?
Monday.

Ms. Haley herself has explicitly made appeals for Democratic Meet Charles
Melton, the
backing. Breakout Star of
‘May December’
“Anybody that wants to come support the cause, whether they’re
Republican, independent or Democrat, we’re going to take them,”
she said on Fox News last week. “And that’s the way the
Republican Party should look at it is, this is a story about addition,
not about getting people and pushing people away.”

Mr. Hoffman has been involved in the Republican primary in other

ways, too. Mr. Mehlhorn was in conversations this year on behalf of
Mr. Hoffman with a super PAC backing former Gov. Chris Christie
of New Jersey, though Mr. Hoffman did not give directly to that
group.

But a nonprofit group with close financial ties to Mr. Hoffman,

Defending Democracy Together, did publicly report making a
$500,000 donation in June to the pro-Christie super PAC, Tell It
Like It Is PAC. Mr. Mehlhorn said that Mr. Hoffman had given even
more to Defending Democracy Together since then.

Colin Reed, a spokesman for the Christie super PAC, said the group
would have happily taken Mr. Hoffman’s money directly. “We’re
grateful of the support of anyone who wants to support the
governor’s campaign,” Mr. Reed said.

Mr. Hoffman, who co-hosted a fund-raiser for Mr. Biden in

California this year, has been uniquely motivated as a donor in
opposition to Mr. Trump. He donated in 2022 to Liz Cheney, who
had emerged as one of the Republican Party’s most vocal anti-
leaders.

In the 2022 election cycle, Mr. Hoffman also gave $3.35 million to
the Republican Accountability Project, which opposes Mr. Trump’s
takeover of the party.

In a post on LinkedIn eight months ago, Mr. Hoffman said he had

helped pay for Ms. Carroll’s case as a counterweight to “Donald
Trump’s scorched-earth legal methods.”

“Supporting women fighting for progress and justice in

philanthropy, politics, and business has been a longstanding
priority of mine, as is supporting America against the threat of
Trump,” he wrote .

Shane Goldmacher is a national political reporter and was previously the chief political
correspondent for the Metro desk. Before joining The Times, he worked at Politico,
where he covered national Republican politics and the 2016 presidential campaign.
More about Shane Goldmacher

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The Run-Up to the 2024 Election

President Biden
Democratic anxiety over the president’s chances of victory in the 2024 election is
intensifying. Here is why a major primary challenge to the incumbent is
unlikely despite those concerns.
At an annual gathering in Arizona, Democratic governors offered six ways they
believe Biden can raise his standing ahead of next year’s election .

Donald Trump
A second term for the former president, who has long exhibited authoritarian
impulses, could be more extreme than the first. Here’s why .

While voting has yet to begin in the Republican primary, Trump has casually
weighed the pros and cons of some possible contenders to be his running mate .

Other Candidates
Chris Christie: Several anti-Trump Republican donors and strategists are pushing
the former governor of New Jersey to end his presidential campaign and back
Nikki Haley .

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: A super PAC backing the independent candidate is

planning to spend $10 million to $15 million to get him on the ballot in 10 states ,

an effort that could heighten Democratic concerns about his potential role of
spoiler in 2024.
Nikki Haley: The former governor of South Carolina has been rising in the polls
thanks to her gains with educated and relatively moderate Republicans and
independents, but that is also a big liability in today’s G.O.P., Nate Cohn writes .

Ron DeSantis: The Florida governor said that, if elected president, he would
pursue legislation that would “supersede” the Affordable Care Act , echoing
Trump’s comments, which Democrats have seized upon .

Doug Burgum: The North Dakota governor, a wealthy former software executive
who hoped a back-to-basics appeal on the economy would propel him forward in
the G.O.P. primary, has dropped out of the race .

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