Billionaire GOP Donor Says the 'Ideal Candidate' for 2024 Isn't in Race Yet
A Republican Party mega-donor and one of the world’s wealthiest men says the “ideal candidate” has not yet entered the 2024 presidential race.
Hungarian-born billionaire Thomas Peterffy told Fox Business on Tuesday that his man is Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
In an interview with network host Neil Cavuto, Peterffy said Youngkin is an attractive potential candidate because he offers the GOP a chance to reach voters in the middle.
“I would like to vote for a person who, in my view, is most likely to be able to win the general election,” he told Cavuto. “And accordingly, we have to pick somebody in the primaries that we believe is most likely to win the general.”
No one in the current field fits that description, Peterffy said.
The billionaire told Cavuto the right candidate “is going to be a person that I believe is more likely to be a centrist candidate.”
“I think that [Glenn Youngkin] would be an ideal candidate, although it is not very likely that he’s going to run. Not at this point, certainly,” he said.
He further expounded on what he likes about Virginia’s governor, who won a shocking election in 2021 and campaigned on the issue of parental rights in education.
“I think that he is the person that most people will find very, very attractive,” Peterffy said.
“And he, of course, goes along with the main Republican ideals of individual freedom and economic freedom. And that’s where the issue basically is. And less regulation, smaller government, etc,” the billionaire added.
Youngkin has offered no indication he intends to enter the race for the White House.
Peterffy also said he ultimately wants to see the U.S. avoid an embrace of socialism.
“I grew up in a socialist country, and I’m deathly afraid of ending up in the same situation, and I will do practically anything to avoid it,” he told Fox Business.
He also said he is a fan of presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy but he wants to see how the businessman performs in the primary debates.
As far as the current leader in polling, Peterffy said, “I don’t think [Donald Trump] can win the general.”
Peterffy was born in Hungary and moved to the U.S. in 1965 at the age of 21, Forbes reported.
He made his fortune in stocks and bonds after he founded the company Interactive Brokers in 1993.
Peterffy was listed as the world’s 57th wealthiest man this year with an estimated net worth of $25.3 billion.
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