DeSantis’s Campaign Brought in $20 Million in Second Quarter, Trailing Trump

Bill Allison and Nancy Cook
·3-min read

(Bloomberg) -- Ron DeSantis raised more than $20 million during the second quarter, a figure lower than Donald Trump’s haul, but a strong showing given that the Florida governor jumped into the Republican 2024 presidential field in late May.

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While DeSantis is short of the $35 million that Republican 2024 frontrunner Trump raised over the three months ended June, according to people familiar, it’s more than double the $9.5 million the former president raised in 45 days after launching his comeback run in November. DeSantis formally announced his long-expected presidential bid on May 24.

Campaigns are due to report detailed information on their receipts and expenditures to the Federal Election Commission on July 15.

A spokesman for the DeSantis campaign declined to comment ahead of the official release of the fundraising total.

The money comes as DeSantis continues to trail Trump by a wide margin in early polling. He’s the choice of 20.9% of voters in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls, 32 points behind Trump. All other candidates for the nomination are in single digits. Former Vice President Mike Pence; Senator Tim Scott and former Governor Nikki Haley, both from South Carolina; as well as former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie are all below 7%.

“One thing that I think is important to note: This isn’t a quarter; this is a five-week result,” said Roy Bailey, a Texas-based businessman who’s raising money for DeSantis. Bailey declined to comment on a specific fundraising figure for the campaign but said “whatever we report will be a highly impressive number.”

Fundraising prowess is one of DeSantis’s strengths. He raised $180 million for his 2022 reelection bid, a record amount for a gubernatorial race according to OpenSecrets. Some of the GOP’s most generous donors, like Citadel’s Ken Griffin, Uline Inc. CEO Richard Uihlein and Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus, supported him with six- and seven-figure donations.

But DeSantis, who had come within 13 points of Trump in February, a month when his support peaked at 31.3%, has seen his poll numbers drop. Some of the more controversial measures he backed in Florida have given certain GOP donors second thoughts about supporting him.

He championed legislation that severely restricted access to abortion, and feuded with Walt Disney Co. over its opposition to the state’s law barring classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation.

Despite a glitch-filled campaign launch on a Twitter space hosted by Elon Musk and his former PayPal colleague David Sacks, DeSantis raised $8.2 million the first day of his campaign — and has continued to rake in the money.

Never Back Down, a super-PAC aligned with his campaign, has done even better. It received $82.5 million of leftover money at the end of May from DeSantis’s former Florida committee and raised at least $30 million on its own in its first few weeks of operation. It has spent $7.3 million backing DeSantis so far, and is due to report detailed information on its finances to the FEC on July 31.

As the challenger to Trump with the highest standing in the polls, DeSantis has become a target as well. Make America Great Again Inc., a super-PAC closely aligned with Trump, has spent an estimated $13 million on ads attacking him. They began airing in March, well before the Florida governor entered the race.

Other candidates in the GOP field have yet to release their fundraising totals.

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