Ken Griffin backing Rubio over Vance: Report

Campaign Ken Griffin backing Rubio over Vance: Report Comments: by Max Rego - 07/09/26 1:45 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Max Rego - 07/09/26 1:45 PM ET Comments: Link copied

NOW PLAYING

Prominent Republican donor Ken Griffin reportedly favors Secretary of State Marco Rubio over Vice President Vance for the GOP nomination in the 2028 presidential race.

During the annual Allen and Company conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, the billionaire hedge fund manager told financial journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin he would be “predisposed” to back Rubio after doing so in the 2016 GOP primary, Axios reported Wednesday.

Griffin donated $107 million to Republican-aligned PACs in the 2024 election cycle, according to data from OpenSecrets.

He notably did not donate to President Trump’s campaign or his MAGA Inc. super PAC that cycle. Instead, Griffin vocally and financially backed former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, the president’s chief opponent in the 2024 primary.

The Hill has reached out for comment to Citadel, the hedge fund company Griffin founded and still runs.

Vance and Rubio have repeatedly deflected regarding whether they will run to succeed the term-limited Trump in 2028 — with the latter telling Vanity Fair last year he will defer to Vance if the vice president seeks the nomination.

Last month, Vance said he will discuss a presidential run with his wife, second lady Usha Vance, after the November midterms.

“The way I make decisions is, I try not to make them until I absolutely must,” he told host Robert Costa on “CBS Sunday Morning.”

Trump has not explicitly endorsed a candidate, with roughly 18 months to go before the Iowa Republican caucuses. But he said last month a Vance-Rubio ticket would be formidable to Democratic opponents.

“I don’t know how you beat them if they’re together,” he told Miranda Devine on an episode of The New York Post’s “Pod Force One.”

“That would be a great team,” he added.

The lion’s share of polling has Vance as the favorite to secure the GOP nomination in two years. A survey conducted by the Washington Free Beacon and Echelon Insights in early June found that 38 percent of 1,121 likely Republican primary voters backed the vice president, while 19 percent supported Rubio, 7 percent backed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and 7 percent were unsure.

No other candidate garnered more than 5 percent support in the survey.

A June poll from the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College found that 36.8 percent of 739 respondents supported Vance, while 30.2 percent backed Rubio. Another 19.5 percent of voters in the state, which holds the first primary each election, supported another candidate while 13.5 percent were unsure.