By Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Alexandra Ulmer
(Reuters) – Hedge fund billionaire Kenneth Griffin gave $5 million to an outside group supporting Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley this month, a person familiar with the donation said on Tuesday.
The support from Griffin, a Republican mega donor, may help Haley assuage concerns of running out of money after she lost the first two Republican nominating contests to runaway frontrunner Donald Trump and faces a steep path to clinching the party’s presidential nomination ahead of the November election.
However, it remains unclear when in January Griffin made the donations, a potentially important fact given Haley lost the Iowa and New Hampshire contests, on Jan. 15 and Jan. 23, respectively.