FOLLOW THE MONEY: DeSantis Took Campaign Money From Gun Control Lobbyist Who Represents Disney

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Now that the Ron DeSantis for President campaign has reported its first quarter of fundraising since the absentee Governor of Florida officially filed to run for President in May 2023, it important to look at how the campaign performed.  Despite consistent chatter about how well DeSantis was fundraising, over the weekend, it was reported that his campaign recently released and fired an unspecified number of staffers in an attempt to run leaner financially.  

On the surface, the DeSantis campaign raised just over $20,487,000.  This was achieved through 16,841 transactions for an average donation of just over $1200.00 per transaction. In comparison, FEC reports show Donald Trump raised $35 Million, with an average donation of $34.

With average donation numbers like that, it’s safe to say Ron DeSantis isn’t exactly a man of the people, and he’s definitely not grassroots.

While the list of Ron DeSantis’s high dollar donors is extensive, one donor caught my attention as I was researching the campaign finance reports.

Jeff Hartley is a registered lobbyist in the state of Florida, and works for a large Tallahassee firm by the name of Smith, Bryan and Myers.  This firm proudly lobbies for Democrat Billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s gun control organization, Everytown for Gun Safety. He also lobbies for Anheuser Busch and Walt Disney World.  

Why would the lobbyist for the companies and policies Ron DeSantis publicly claims to oppose be a double max donor to his campaign?  

Vivek Ramaswamy barely trailed the DeSantis campaign in fundraising coming in with $19,164,680 raised, totaling 1089 transactions.  It should be noted that Vivek himself has contributed over $10 million in personal funds to his campaign. Nikki Haley, who has also filed to run for President, didn’t raise as much money as DeSantis, but she outpaced him in terms of individual transactions. Haley had 24,734 transactions during the same time period. Joe Biden had 27,846 transactions, while Tim Scott finished the fundraising quarter with 13,853 transactions. 

While Chris Christie has publicly claimed he’s reached the RNC’s mandated 40,000 donor minimum as a requirement to participate in their first scheduled debate on August 23, 2023, campaign finance reports indicate a different story. 

The largest donation to the DeSantis campaign was made by the Draft DeSantis 2024 Fund.  This donation totaled $351,933.43.  It is also important to look at where DeSantis is raising money from.  A quick review of the Federal Election Commission website shows that out of the 16,841 individual contributions made to the DeSantis campaign, 5,117 of those came from the state of Florida.  In contrast, Iowa supporters only accounted for 66 contributions.  New Hampshire fares even worse than Iowa with only 51 contributors coming from the state.  In comparison, Nikki Haley had 822 individual donations from Iowa during the same time period.  

Additionally, more than $3 million of what DeSantis raised are funds earmarked for the general election — meaning donors gave more than the $3,300 limit for the primary, and those extra funds will not be available to the candidate for use until after the primary is over.  Many of DeSantis’s donors are also currently maxed out and will not be able to contribute any additional funds to the DeSantis campaign due to campaign finance laws, which means DeSantis will only be able to rely on his Wall Street sugar daddy donors for a limited amount of time.

DeSantis’s campaign also spent heavily.  39% of the contributions raised were spent during the first reporting period.  Some highlights include more than $900,000 on merchandise, and $883,000 on digital fundraising consulting.  Other significant expenditure categories included $867,000 toward media placements and $730,000 on direct mail.  It has been reported that DeSantis had more than 90 paid staffers on his campaign payroll. Based on the totals of the biweekly disbursements on his FEC report, it is easy to calculate an annual salary in excess of $120,000 for DeSantis for President rapid response Director Christina Pushaw. For comparison, Ron DeSantis is currently paid an annual salary of $134,000 as the Governor of Florida.  

The future of DeSantis fundraising remains to be seen.  However, recent reports indicate that large GOP donors are souring on the DeSantis campaign as he continues to trail Donald Trump substantially in early polls in key primary states, as well as nationally among GOP voters.  Without the large special interest donors, the DeSantis campaign will not have the grassroots donor support it desperately needs in order to continue having enough engagement to fundraise on a long term basis for a Presidential campaign.

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