And that’s all without him opening an official campaign committee account.
DeSantis’ financial advantage looms over the Republican field: Most contenders have cash balances orders of magnitude lower than his own. It outranks much lower-voted contenders such as the pair of South Carolinians, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scot. Even the super-PAC backing Trump, MAGA Inc., reported $55 million on hand by the end of 2022 — a hefty sum, but far less than what’s in the bank for DeSantis. The former president has also raised $18 million from his campaign since its launch in November.
In addition, DeSantis has the advantage of his platform as Florida governor. This week he tried to brush up on his foreign policy during a trip to Japan, South Korea, Israel and the United Kingdom funded by the state’s economic development department, which relies on both public and private money. The governor’s team said the taxpayer did not foot the bill.
“When DeSantis comes in, he’s going to gain tremendous momentum and I think the donor class and the [fund]”Fraiser Class will be with him,” supporter Roy Bailey, a Texas fundraiser who helped lead Trump’s past presidential fundraising efforts, said in an interview with POLITICO on Wednesday.
“The people I speak to are either major donors or major drafters. From my conversations across the country with those people, it’s been very clear to me for a while that they hope DeSantis gets in the race and I think their money will follow,” Bailey added.
Bailey declined to go into detail about why he switched allegiances, simply calling DeSantis “what our country needs right now.”
DeSantis’ State Re-Election Record, Friends of Ron DeSantis, has more than $80 million left since winning in a landslide last November, including $14 million that came in in the first three months of this year. That money could be wired to a federal PAC — a move that could draw formal complaints from its opponents.
Never Back Down, a super-PAC formed by former Trump White House official Ken Cuccinelli, has reportedly raised $33 million. (An application won’t be available until July, but a group representative – granted anonymity to share details not yet publicly available – confirmed reporting of the sum.) And a few smaller groups have formed to support a possible DeSantis candidacy. The Florida Republican Party, over which DeSantis has significant influence, pushed $3 million toward his campaign in February and continues to post impressive fundraising numbers.
Despite his financial lead, DeSantis has been thwarted by Trump in other ways.
The former president and current Republican frontrunner is receiving support from Republicans in Florida and this week received support from former Rep. Lee Zeldina New Yorker who had been praising DeSantis for months. Some supporters and donors are started express concern about his strength after expressing controversial views on abortion and the war in Ukraine.
Nevertheless, a tidal wave of money is already pounding the DeSantis coast.
Robert Bigelow, a real estate magnate with a keen interest in the afterlifedonated $10 million to DeSantis gubernatorial account and recently identified herself to TIME Magazine as the largest donor to Never Back Down. Wall Street billionaire Jeff Yass, an early investor in TikTok, contributed $2.6 million to the state campaign in February — three months after DeSantis won reelection.
Several other major donors followed that pattern, an indication that they support DeSantis’ ambitions. Joe Ricketts, former CEO of TD Ameritrade, also donated $1 million to the governmental account in February.
Bigelow, Yass and Ricketts did not respond to requests for comment, nor did a DeSantis spokesperson.
While money matters, well-funded campaigns have fallen apart in the past.
Former Florida governor Jeb Bush serves as a cautionary tale after entering the 2016 Republican primary with $100 million in super PAC funding but not a single win in the state primary. Former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg spent $1 billion of his own fortune on a White House bid in 2020, but dropped out three months later after failing to win any victories outside of American Samoa.
For DeSantis, shifting his political fortunes carries some risk.
Federal law prohibits a transfer from his state account to a presidential campaign, and presidential candidates are generally prohibited from raising money through state accounts.
But according to two election lawyers, transferring money to a PAC that supports him is unlikely to have legal repercussions if DeSantis follows a series of complicated steps, including relinquishing control of the state account before the transfer takes place.
They said the move raised concerns, but pointed to a precedent set by Florida Rep. Byron Donald’sa Republican who resigned from a state commission who then put more than $100,000 into a super-PAC to boost his Congress in 2020.
“There is no indication that the FEC would take a different approach and apply the law differently simply because we are talking about more money,” said Erin Chlopak, senior director of campaign finance at the Campaign Legal Center, which filed a complaint against the Donald’s Commission.
The FEC also moves so slowly that if DeSantis filed a complaint, it likely wouldn’t be resolved until after the 2024 election, said Brendan Fischer, a longtime campaign finance attorney and deputy executive director at the nonprofit Documented.
Never Back Down has raised funds for a draft account that would funnel money to an eventual DeSantis campaign, but contributions to that entity would be capped at $3,300 per donor for the primary. The PAC representative would not say whether it has transferred funds to the “Draft DeSantis 2024” effort, and would not disclose the number of people who have donated to Never Back Down.
“There is only one Republican who can beat Joe Biden. It’s Ron DeSantis,” Erin Perrine, director of communications for Never Back Down, said in a statement. Perrin was referring to polls showing that DeSantis is in a stronger position than Trump to beat Biden, despite trailing Trump in most primary matchups. “America needs bold, conservative leadership that is unafraid to stand up to the awakened left, defend families, and never shy away from the hard fights our country faces. Ron DeSantis is that leader.”