Donors in GOP circles are growing increasingly concerned as no candidate has gained significant traction as the alternative to the front-runner, former President Trump, causing some to look at options other than Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

"There’s a lot of concern, hand-wringing, and significant conversations among the donor class regarding their frustrations as it relates to Gov. DeSantis and his ability to gain traction," a veteran Republican strategist with close ties to the GOP donor class told Fox News Digital.

"As a result, a lot of them are taking a hard look at Nikki Haley. They realize the field needs to consolidate and any opportunity to beat President Trump is going to be predicated on it being a two-person race. There are folks who are seriously considering shifting away from DeSantis and over to Nikki Haley."

"There’s definitely a lot of people talking," a top dollar donor supporting DeSantis, who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely, told Fox News. "I think there’s a lot of frustration with the DeSantis campaign. We were like this pedigree thoroughbred on the starting and it just didn’t happen."

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Additionally, FOX Business Senior Correspondent Charlie Gasparino posted on X this week that "people close" to the DeSantis campaign told him they are "growing increasingly despondent about his chances as he continues to languish in polls."

"They say he is stubbornly refusing the drop out and has enough money to stay in race hoping that something existential happens to Donald Trump."

Gasparino also told Fox News Digital people close to the campaign are saying DeSantis needs to play "effective defense" and that the operation is a "mess" that lacks any "technocrats."

While some donors are growing wary of the way the DeSantis campaign is trending, Fox News Digital spoke to several donors who believe the 2024 bid is right on track.

Dan Eberhart, an oil drilling chief executive officer and a prominent Republican donor and bundler who is supporting DeSantis, told Fox News Digital "we’re the only campaign built to go the distance." 

"DeSantis is the only candidate who can beat Trump in Iowa," Eberhart said. 

Roy Bailey, a DeSantis fundraiser who previously served as Trump's national finance co-chairman in 2016 and 2020, touted DeSantis's fundraising operation in a phone call with Fox News Digital and said he feels "great" about where the campaign is.

"I think our candidate is hitting on all the notes," Bailey said. "I think he's showing the leader that he is. Since the advent of the terrible tragedy and horrific things in Israel he is proven to be the leader that we all know he is. Great judgment."

DeSantis donor and Point Bridge Capital CEO Hal Lambert told Fox News Digital that some of the Iowa polls are "off" and that Haley will "not get" double digits in the state when the votes are counted.

"We're still raising lots of money," Lambert said. "The narrative is out there I get it. The media in general wants Trump to be the nominee. The Democrat Party wants Trump to be the nominee and Trump wants to be the nominee. You have three pretty powerful groups that want him and so there's been a lot of attacks on DeSantis."

The latest presidential power rankings from Fox News show Trump with a commanding lead but with two candidates in the best position to "reshape" the race with a strong showing in Iowa, DeSantis and Haley.

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"Nikki Haley is now second in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina and is the only candidate with upward momentum in polls, fundraising and support," Ken Farnaso, spokesperson for Haley's campaign, told Fox News Digital. "It’s time to start calling this a two-person race, between one man and one woman."

Last month, the DeSantis campaign touted a $15 million July-September fundraising haul that they said at the time "shatters expectations" while also confirming to Fox News the campaign is moving staff from Florida to Iowa, where the Jan. 15 caucuses lead off the GOP presidential nominating calendar.

DeSantis was once solidly in second place in the race for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, but he has seen his numbers in the surveys erode in recent months as Trump expanded his lead over the Florida governor. 

The latest Real Clear Politics average shows Trump at 48.8% in Iowa followed by DeSantis at 17.3% and Haley at 11.5%.

Overall, a Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday shows Trump leading the GOP field with 64% support in the race for the Republican presidential nomination followed by DeSantis at 15% and Haley with 6%.

Speaking to a press gaggle in New Hampshire on Thursday, DeSantis said "we feel very good about where we are."

"I would not trade positions with anybody," DeSantis added.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, the COO of Never Back Down, a DeSantis aligned super Pac, Kristin Davison, said, "No one seriously thinks Nikki Haley has a real shot at winning the nomination and "the reality is Ron DeSantis is the only candidate who can bring the party together. He can win the forever Trump voters and the Never Trump voters."

Andrew Romeo, communications director for the DeSantis campaign, told Fox News Digital that the DeSantis campaign has "out-raised the non-Trump field for the entire campaign."

Romeo went on to say the DeSantis campaign's "fourth quarter fundraising continues to accelerate, which is why we are beefing up our ad spending and launched our first ad in Iowa today."

A Texas grand jury has indicted a mother in the murder of her 6-year-old disabled son a year after he was last seen. Prosecutors are hopeful that this will expedite her return from India, where she and her family emigrated days before an Amber Alert was issued for the missing child. 

Cindy Rodriguez-Singh is accused of two counts of injury to a child and one count of abandoning a child without intent to return in addition to capital murder charges handed down by the Tarrant County grand jury on Monday. 

Just after giving birth to twins last November, Rodriguez-Singh applied for passports for her six other children, but not Noel Rodriguez-Álvarez, authorities previously told told People. 

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Then in March, she, her husband Arshdeep Singh and her six other children left their home in Everman and fled to India on a one-way Turkish Airlines flight, police said. 

At a press conference on Monday, Everman Police Chief Craig Spencer hoped that "these indictments [would] significantly support our effort to apprehend and extradite Cindy back to the United States."

Now, Spencer said, authorities are working with the U.S. Marshals, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI to bring the mother back to the states for trial.

Noel's body has not been found, however, cadaver dogs detected human remains on a carpet that had once been on the floor of a shed that had been demolished on the family's rented property. The carpet had been retrieved from a dumpster by police after Arshdeep Singh disposed of it, Law & Crime reported.

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Spencer told People the family had a concrete patio constructed over the former site of the shed under "very suspicious circumstances." Although law enforcement obtained a warrant to rip up the concrete, no physical evidence was recovered. 

Police said the family spent their entire tax return on the rushed construction of the patio just weeks before boarding their flight, and reportedly requested that concrete be laid more thickly in one area, contractors told authorities.

"When this case was presented to the grand jury, it was indicted in what is called a ‘manner and means unknown to the grand jury,'" Spencer said at the Monday press conference. "When you indict on that, [you] have to prove – we may not have a body and, well, we don't have a body, right – but we have to prove a reasonable effort in identifying any and all other circumstances and potential outcomes for this boy." 

However, after an exhaustive six-month search for the body, Spencer said police were left with "one simple conclusion" – that "he was murdered."

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The child was last seen at the hospital where Rodriguez-Singh gave birth to her twins and one other time in October 2022 – witnesses told police the 6-year-old appeared "malnourished" and "unhealthy" at the time, per a prior press release from the Everman Police Department. 

The child has serious disabilities that require intensive care and patience, including a chronic lung disease that requires frequent oxygen treatment, USA Today reported.

When police initially contacted Rodriguez-Singh following concerned calls from the boy's extended family, she reportedly said that he was in Mexico with his father – a claim that was later disproved, per a search warrant obtained by Fox News Digital. 

In early April, Noel's grandmother told police that Rodriguez-Singh told her that the child was sold to another woman at a Fiesta Market grocery store, per the warrant. 

In the days leading up to his suspected death, witnesses told police that the mother told others the 6-year-old was "evil, possessed or [had] a demon in him." 

She also allegedly feared the boy would "hunt" her newborns, per the warrant. 

The mother was "known by relatives to be abusive and neglectful" to Noel, per People. 

"One relative witnessed Cindy strike Noel in the face with keys for drinking water," police wrote in an earlier press release. "Witnesses additional stated that food and water was often withheld from Noel because Cindy did not like changing Noel's dirty diapers."

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Police have also alleged that the mother practiced the religion of Asante Morte and worshiped Santa Muerte – a cult-like folk saint who personifies death, has been disavowed by Mexican officials with the Catholic Church and is often associated with violent drug cartels – saying that these alleged beliefs were "very important" to their investigation, FOX 4 Dallas reported. 

The station showed an on-camera tour of another shed on the property, where the family lived before leaving the country, on March 29. Inside, shrines that appear to be for Nuestra Santa de Santa Muerte – "Our Lady of Death" in Spanish – were displayed among clutter.

"In this case it's very important. She idolizes Santa Muerte. It’s everywhere within the shed. It was everywhere within the home, it was on her vehicle, so it was pretty evident to us she was idolizing and worshiping," Spencer told the outlet. "Essentially he is the patron saint that offers protection to the cartel and those kinds of activities."

Also in April, on the same day the family left the country, Arshdeep Singh was charged with felony theft for reportedly stealing $10,000 from an employer on March 22, per Law & Crime. 

A candlelight vigil for Noel was held on Monday in Everman.