Ron DeSantis' 2024 Campaign Raises Over $150 Million in Funding
Ron Desantis' 2024 presidential campaign has been raising a lot of money lately, with the campaign raising $20 million since he announced his run with Elon Musk.
Officials from the Ron DeSantis campaign reported that its fundraising efforts are the "largest first-quarter filing from any non-incumbent Republican candidate in more than a decade." The campaign is also framing these fundraising numbers as a sign of momentum. Currently, the Florida governor is struggling against former President Donald Trump in the polls despite outraising him.
"We are grateful for the investment so many Americans have made to get this country back on track," said campaign manager Generra Peck. "The fight to save it will be long and challenging, but we have built an operation to share the governor's message and mobilize the millions of people who support it. We are ready to win."
The governor's Super PAC, Never Back Down, also announced that it had already raised $130 million since it was launched last March. This includes the $82.5 million that was transferred from a Florida political committee affiliated with DeSantis, according to Politico.
The DeSantis campaign announcement came after chief rival Donald Trump's campaign announced that his controversial leadership political action committee, Save America, and the Trump campaign have jointly raised $35 million during the second quarter of 2023. This is despite all the state and federal indictments against Trump, as well as the scandal that he has been using campaign donations to fund his legal fees.
Despite the myriad of cases, from the E. Jean Carrol rape case to the Georgia election interference case to the classified documents case, Trump still leads against DeSantis by a wide margin.
Ron DeSantis Backed by Dozens of Billionaires
DeSantis is outraising Trump because around 42 billionaires are backing the Florida governor. According to Tallahassee.com, the amount of billionaire support for the Ron DeSantis 2024 campaign has been called "extraordinary" by experts. This is despite DeSantis "bashing" billionaires and their companies in public.
His biggest billionaire backer is Ken Griffin, who is a Republican megadonor and is highly active in conservative politics. During DeSantis' re-election bid in 2022, he donated $5 million to the Florida governor. The billionaire, who has a net worth of $26 billion, was unhappy with DeSantis over his Disney feud. Despite this, he is still one of the Republican's biggest backers.
Other notable billionaire donors include Julia Koch, widow of the late Republican megadonor David Koch of Koch Industries, megadonor Julie Jenkins Fancelli, San Francisco 49ers owner Edward DeBartolo Jr., and former President Donald Trump's Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
Ron DeSantis Popular With the Rich, but Struggles Among Blue-Collar Americans
While DeSantis is surging among richer Republicans, he keeps on struggling with more blue-collar Americans, not just Republicans. This is despite constantly railing against the "elites" while still being backed by them.
According to Yahoo!, recent polls show that DeSantis is faring better than Trump against richer and more educated Republican voters but struggles against Republicans who did not finish college, as well as working-class Republicans. This shows in a recent CNN poll where 55% of voters without a college degree back Trump.
The same can be said for a new poll by Emerson College, which found that 73% of Republican primary voters with a high school diploma or less back Trump while only 8% back DeSantis.
This article is owned by Latin Post.
Written by: Rick Martin
WATCH: Trump slams DeSantis' July 4th campaign events in New Hampshire - CBS News
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