Harlan Crow, Other Billionaires Donate to DeSantis Campaign

(Bloomberg) -- Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s campaign can count billionaire real estate developer Harlan Crow among a list of wealthy donors who are supporting his campaign.

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Crow and his wife Kathy collectively gave $6,600 to the DeSantis campaign, the maximum contributions for the primary, according to a Federal Election Commission filing on Saturday that gives the first look at DeSantis’s donor list since his campaign launched in May.

The Texas billionaire has recently come under scrutiny for his close ties to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, after reports of Crow funding lavish vacations and private real estate deals involving Thomas and his family members.

Since 2015, the Crows have donated $7.4 million to federal candidates and committees, according to OpenSecrets, with all but $221,000 of that amount supporting Republicans.

Crow is far from the only billionaire to give to DeSantis, who is running second in the polls and in fundraising behind former President Donald Trump. DeSantis has been discussed by donors and other party insiders as one of the most viable options to defeat Trump, but his campaign has so far failed to gain the momentum to overtake the former president.

Trump’s campaign, which has not yet released detailed information about donors, said he raised $35 million in the second quarter, with his campaign and leadership PAC benefiting from the haul. DeSantis raised $20.1 million, including donations from other notable individuals, including:

• Billionaire Kelcy Warren, chairman of Energy Transfer LP

• Home Depot co-founder Kenneth Langone

• Mel Sembler, who served as vice chairman of Trump’s finance committee after he secured the GOP nomination in 2016

• PayPal alumnus David Sacks

• Former Philadelphia Eagles owner Norman Braman

• Harold Hamm of Continental Resources Inc.

• John Childs, founder of private equity firm J.W. Childs Associates

Notably absent from any Republican candidates lists released so far are GOP mega-donors Ken Griffin of Citadel and Blackstone Group Inc.’s Stephen Schwarzman.

The figures released Saturday don’t include contributions to a DeSantis-allied super-PAC, Never Back Down, which doesn’t have a cap on the amount an individual can give. That group will release its financial information at the end of July.

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