Israel-Hamas war ignites fight between Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is telling Republicans that he’s in an existential fight against former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley — without telling them that.

The two candidates have emerged as the leading alternatives to former President Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination — a position DeSantis once held alone. For several days, they have been engaged in a heated exchange over the unfolding war in the Middle East, with DeSantis on Thursday reiterating a debunked charge that Haley wants to admit Palestinian refugees to the U.S.

But the skirmish may be noteworthy less for the substance than for what it says about the state of a race in which Trump is still the dominant figure, according to Republican strategists who are not affiliated with either campaign.

For months, DeSantis and his allies have contended that the governor was in a two-man battle with Trump for the nomination. Their new focus on Haley betrays a different concern: that DeSantis is locked in a fight with her for second place.

“This is much more about momentum and whose arrow is pointing up and whose arrow is pointing down,” said Matthew Bartlett, a national Republican strategist and New Hampshire native. “I think they are trying to blunt any further growth, rise or momentum [for Haley] in order to try to maintain the No. 2 position.”

South Carolina state Sen. Josh Kimbrell, who has endorsed DeSantis, said the showdown between DeSantis and Haley always felt like it was coming.

“I always felt like this was going to happen [a Haley-DeSantis clash],” Kimbrell said. “This is all about who will be able to survive when the herd is thinned.”

He added that he did think the dust-up over whether Haley wants to allow Palestinian refugees into the U.S. would “hurt her with primary voters.” She has said she does not want to admit Palestinian refugees, a charge stemming a CNN interview in which she said “you can separate civilians from terrorists” while discussing a blanket statement DeSantis had made about Gaza.

A DeSantis adviser downplayed the idea the spat had anything to do with Haley’s capturing momentum but said it’s an example of DeSantis’ fending off attacks.

“Governor DeSantis, as he has in the past, will continue to correct the record when attacked,” the person said.

Both candidates trail Trump by yawning margins in national and state-by-state polling, with DeSantis currently running second in Iowa and Haley holding that spot in New Hampshire and South Carolina. But their relative proximity to each other, at a time when several other candidates have faded, is a result of Haley gaining steam and DeSantis losing it over the course of the campaign.

“DeSantis has had more resources, but Nikki Haley has something that you can’t buy that he never really had: momentum,” said Vinny Minchillo, a longtime GOP operative based in Texas.