MIAMI — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign announced Thursday that it raised $20 million in the first six weeks of his candidacy.
Meanwhile, Never Back Down, the main super PAC supporting DeSantis’ White House bid, said that it pulled in a staggering $130 million since its launch in early March, adding a massive amount of financial power to DeSantis’ presidential ambitions. Both fundraising totals were first reported Thursday by Fox News.
The combined financial windfall — amounting to $150 million — illustrates how DeSantis and his allies have maintained a breakneck fundraising pace throughout the opening weeks of his campaign, even as his chief opponent in the Republican primary, former President Donald Trump, continues to dominate in public polling.
DeSantis’ campaign manager, Generra Peck, touted the fundraising haul — the first to be reported by DeSantis since he announced his candidacy in May — as a sign of Republican enthusiasm “to invest in a winner ready to lead America’s revival.”
“We are grateful for the investment so many Americans have made to get this country back on track,” Peck said in a statement. “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.”
Nearly half of the DeSantis campaign’s fundraising haul — about $8.2 million — poured in during the first 24 hours after he announced his candidacy. And a massive portion of Never Back Down’s total sum was transferred to the group from DeSantis’ state-level political committee.
That transfer is the subject of a federal campaign finance complaint filed by the Campaign Legal Center in May. The complaint alleges that DeSantis and his state political committee violated laws banning the use of so-called “soft money” — funds that are not subject to federal contribution limits and reporting requirements — in federal elections.
Still, the fundraising numbers from DeSantis’ campaign establish him as one of the most prolific fundraisers of the 2024 Republican presidential primary. The fundraising haul also gives him some bragging rights over Trump, who pulled in $3.8 million during his first quarter as a candidate and $14.5 million in his second quarter.
DeSantis’ announced sum covers the second quarter of the year, spanning from April 1 to June 30. All declared presidential candidates are required to file their fundraising reports for the three-month stretch with the Federal Election Commission on July 15. Super PACs have until July 31 to file their reports.
So far, Trump is the only other candidate to have offered any insight into his campaign’s second-quarter finances. Trump’s team confirmed Wednesday that his joint fundraising operation — which splits funds between Trump’s campaign and his leadership political action committee Save America — pulled in $35 million between April 1 and June 30.
The campaign did not say how much of that $35 million went to the campaign and how much went to Save America, which has covered non-campaign-related expenses in the past, including Trump’s legal bills.
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