The November campaign finance reports released by the Florida Division of Elections on Friday show that Governor DeSantis’ political committee, Friends of Ron DeSantis, raised $4,593,936.
DeSantis, who had been fundraising for his campaign well before his official campaign announcement, now has $67 million in cash on hand from a variety of contributors who donated from as low as $1, to as high as $500,000 in November.
The largest single donation of $500,000 came from a venture capitalist from the Buckley Muething Capital Management Co., Walter W. Buckley Jr. Mr. Buckley has been contributing to Republican party members’ campaigns since 2000.
The next highest contribution comes from Elaine J. Wold, a Florida-based philanthropist and heiress to Johnson and Johnson who donated $250,000. She also donated the same amount to DeSantis’ first gubernatorial campaign in 2018.
As for DeSantis’ campaign account, which was not opened until November when he officially announced his re-election campaign, Friday’s report showed an additional $1,404,405. The largest single donation of $100,000 came from the Republican Party of Florida.
Along with the $100,000 donation, the Republican Party of Florida also accounted for 19 more donations that totaled another $98,422.79.
DeSantis’ November fundraising totals for both his campaign account and his political committee, continue to show a large financial advantage over the Democratic gubernatorial candidates – U.S. Representative, Charlie Crist, Florida Agricultural Commissioner, Nikki Fried, and Florida Senator, Annette Taddeo.
For comparison, Crist’s political committee, Friends of Charlie Crist, announced Wednesday that $607,000 was raised in the month of November, that led to a $5 million fundraising landmark. DeSantis almost raised that in the month of November alone.
As for Fried, the campaign finance report for her political committee, Florida Consumers First, raised $110,228. Taddeo’s November finance report for her committee, Fight Back Florida, was unavailable on the Florida Division of Elections’ website, but her October finance report showed that she raised almost $349,000 for her campaign account while her committee accounted for approximately $275,000.
While significantly ahead of all of his Democratic opponents, the amount of funds raised in November was the lowest amount the Governor’s committee has raised since July. That could be due to the opening of his campaign account, which could have drawn previous contributors to Friends of Ron DeSantis to the campaign account instead.
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Casey Owens is a contributing writer for The Florida Capital Star. Follow him on Twitter at @cowensreports. Email tips to [email protected].
Background Photo “Florida Capitol” by DXR. CC BY-SA 4.0.
