(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) Stalled in polls and stumbling with messy messaging, Ron DeSantis’s 2024 campaign managed to raise an eye-popping $20 million in its first six weeks since the Florida Republican governor launched his presidential bid, in what the campaign touted as “the largest first-quarter filing from any non-incumbent Republican candidate in more than a decade.”
While the haul was significant, DeSantis was still left having to explain how his fundraising efforts outpaced former President Donald Trump’s announced $35-million second-quarter war chest.
DeSantis’s campaign noted that his six-week effort was more than Trump raised in the first two quarters following his mid-November announcement. By the numbers, Trump brought in $3.8 million in the last quarter of 2022 and $14.5 million in the first quarter of 2023, for a take of $18.3 million.
Trump’s fundraising, and poll numbers, surged in the wake of a series of sham indictments from the Biden administration’s politically weaponized Justice Department. The former president’s fundraising committee and Save America PAC took in $35 million from April 1 to June 30, nearly doubling its coffers.
Apart from the DeSantis campaign’s $20-million effort, the pro-DeSantis Never Back Down super-PAC announced that it had raised $130 million since the committee formed in early March.
While DeSantis remains mired in second place among the GOP primary pack, trailing Trump by upwards of 30% in polling averages, the Florida governor’s campaign manager said the fundraising numbers hold a positive outlook, arguing that President Joe Biden’s “leftist policies are destroying the country, and Republicans are excited to invest in a winner ready to lead America’s revival.”
In announcing the six-week $20-million haul, DeSantis campaign manager Generra Peck said, “We are grateful for the investment so many Americans have made to get this country back on track. 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 DeSantis numbers, while impressive, lacked context, argued Trump campaign and MAGA supporters.
Thank you @teddyschleifer for putting Rod’s fundraising numbers in perspective..
It’s clear as day that he has NO support among the grassroots. Just K Street lobbyists, Wall St Bankers, and globalist billionaires are supporting Rod DeSantis for 2024
The grassroots are w/ Trump! pic.twitter.com/wqT0CjqeNs
— Alex Bruesewitz 🇺🇸 (@alexbruesewitz) July 6, 2023
