The 2024 presidential candidate is among the growing list duking it out for DeSantis' second place spot as he remains at least 20 points behind former President Donald Trump but around the same distance ahead of the rest of the primary field.

Haley, a former South Carolina Gov. and once Trump's Ambassador to the United Nations, slammed DeSantis for using taxpayer dollars to fund the Florida government's lawsuit with Walt Disney Co.

'So here you have DeSantis, who accepted $50,000 in political contributions from Disney; he went and put their executives and their lobbyists on prominent boards throughout Florida; and he went and basically gave the highest corporate subsidies in Florida history to Disney,' Haley said to the crowd during her town hall conversation with CNN's Jake Tapper.

'But because they went and criticized him, now he's going to spend taxpayer dollars on a lawsuit.'