As of September 9, the reelection campaign of Governor Ron DeSantis has brought in a total of $177.4 million in donations.
According to Open Secrets, this sum is a new high for the amount of money raised in a gubernatorial race without taking into account the effects of inflation.
Since January 2021, his campaign has brought in $31.4 million. DeSantis’ state-level political action committee has the same amount.
Since January 2019, Friends of Ron DeSantis reported having raised a total of $146 million. This organization is exempt from contribution limits.
In the meantime, DeSantis’ opponent in the Florida governor race, Representative Charlie Crist, has raised $20 million.
Watchdog group says Ron DeSantis has broken gubernatorial fundraising record | Just The News https://t.co/9hYLjUQfC9
— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) September 17, 2022
Record Holder, Record Breaker
In April, DeSantis broke his record for the most money raised in a single month by bringing in $10.5 million, which was more than half of Crist’s total.
Three individuals who were born and raised in the state of Florida are among the top five contributors to the campaign for the current governor. The Republican Governors Association is the source that donated the most money with a $20.35 million contribution.
Bigelow Aerospace, owned by Robert Bigelow of Nevada, is the fourth largest donor, having contributed $10 million. It is currently the state record for a contribution made by a single person in Florida.
According to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, there have been 42 individuals worth a billion dollars or more who contributed to the campaign.
On Saturday, Crist asked on Twitter where Ron DeSantis was hiding out. He went on to say Desantis is in Wisconsin and Kansas, where abortion is illegal, campaigning alongside other anti-abortion fanatics.
Where’s Ron DeSantis? He's campaigning with fellow anti-abortion extremists in Wisconsin and Kansas.
He’s abandoned Florida and our people to run for president — and this November, we’ll abandon him at the polls.
— Charlie Crist (@CharlieCrist) September 17, 2022
Crist claimed in the post that DeSantis deserted Florida and its residents in order to run for president; he predicted that voters would do the same to him in November.
DeSantis For President?
In addition to this, DeSantis’ record is noteworthy since the person who previously held it was herself a billionaire. Meg Whitman, who had a net worth of $3.3 billion at the time, ran for governor of California in 2010, but was ultimately unsuccessful in her bid.
The candidate for the Republican nomination donated a personal contribution of $144.2 million to her campaign, which ultimately raised more than $176 million.
The current holder of the second position, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, fell short of Whitman’s record by about $300,000 in terms of fundraising, but he contributed the same amount of his own personal wealth —$172 million— towards his campaign.
Open Secrets also conducted an analysis of the fundraising activities of the top 20 candidates for president. They found Ron DeSantis raised more money since the beginning of 2021 than the current President Biden or former President Trump.
There are reportedly 58,000 people on the mailing list for the federal political committee Ready for Ron, advocating for Ron DeSantis to run for president.
On October 12, the candidates for governor, Ron DeSantis, and Charlie Crist, will square off in a debate.
This article appeared in The Political Globe and has been published here with permission.
