‘How Did You Blow Through $150 Million?’ Nikki Haley Twists the Knife on DeSantis’ Campaign Spending and Poll Numbers

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley tore into Ron DeSantis’ exorbitant campaign spending and low poll numbers during CNN’s Republican primary debate on Wednesday.

After Haley was pushed into defending her poor record on school choice, DeSantis said, “That word salad is the problem. She says she’s always supported school choice, and she failed to deliver, she blames other people. Leadership is about getting things done. Stop making excuses, make it happen!”

Haley shot back, “If leadership’s about getting things done, how did you blow through $150 million in your campaign and you were down in the polls?”

As DeSantis tried to respond, the moderator shut him down, telling him it was Haley’s time to speak.

“I think I hit a nerve,” Haley continued:

What I will tell you is, look, if you can’t manage a campaign– it’s been a revolving door of political people in and out of his campaign. You’ve heard of campaign people going to blows with each other because they can’t all agree. $150 million and he spent more on private planes than commercials. I flew commercial. I stayed in Residence Inns. We went and saved our money. We made sure we spent it right because you have to understand it’s not your money, it’s other people’s money, and you have to know how to handle it. If he can’t handle the financial parts of a campaign, how is he going to handle the economy when it comes to the White House?

DeSantis responded:

This is a great window into leadership because she’s focused on a lot of political process stuff, things that no voter cares about, and she couldn’t tell you why she failed to deliver school choice to people in her state after she promised it. So she says somehow that is indicative– no, leadership is about producing results. We’ve produced the results in Florida. We did universal school choice, we’ve cut taxes, we banned sanctuary cities, on and on down the line, everything I promised, I delivered. She doesn’t have a rationale for why she couldn’t get it done. That is poor leadership.

He concluded, “You look at me, everything I promised I would do, I have delivered, and you can expect nothing less when I’m the president of the United States.”

While DeSantis’ campaign and the pro-DeSantis super PAC Never Back Down have raised hundreds of millions of dollars, DeSantis has continued to slip in the polls since the launch of his campaign in May 2023.

According to RealClearPolitics’ poll average, DeSantis is currently in third place behind Haley at 11% – more than 50 points behind the Republican primary frontrunner, former President Donald Trump.

Watch above via CNN.