DeSantis Has Raised a Staggering $110 Million — Doubling Trump’s War Chest
Not yet declared 2024 GOP primary candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis has amassed a stunning campaign war chest that not only dwarfs the money raised by his potential opponents so far, and doubles the Donald Trump campaign take, but eclipses the totals raised by some of Trump’s 2016 primary opponents.
Politico reported on Friday that the DeSantis war chest is over $110 million — money that would or will be in support of his presumed presidential bid.
“DeSantis’ financial advantage looms over the Republican field: Most contenders have cash balances on orders of magnitude lower than his,” Politico reports. “Even the super PAC backing Trump, MAGA Inc., reported $55 million on hand as of the end of 2022 — a hefty sum, but far short of what’s in the bank for DeSantis.”
It notable that the DeSantis haul before even entering the race is more than the total money raised over the entire course of the 2016 primary by also-rans like Chris Christie, a potential 2024 candidate, who in 2016 pulled just $23.8 million in outside support and $8.4 million by the campaign. It also smokes fellow potential 2024 candidate Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2016 total outside cash running against Trump of $53 million. The Cruz campaign also raised a healthy $89.5 million on its own over the entire course of that primary; one can only speculate how much an official DeSantis 2024 campaign might raise.
The governor’s fellow Floridians Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio had bigger 2016 totals, at $121.7 million and $110.4 million in outside support, respectively.
Trump raised $88.9 million in that primary. So only 73% of the total raised by the barely-made-a-dent Bush run.
Over the course of the entire election, the Trump camp raised a whopping $333 milliojn and had $100 million in outside support. Of his campaign money, $66 million was from Trump’s own pocket. In total, his successful campaign from primary through his election win spent $422 million. Out of that, $68 million was spent in the primary.
It is estimated that he received free media coverage valued at about $5 billion. With a b.
Trump continues to treat DeSantis as a major threat to his chances of winning the primary and therefore the presidency in 2024. The media, as in 2016, has been all over that, repeating every Trump attack on DeSantis and running his ads against DeSantis on their networks. One can only speculate how much this cycle’s free media will be valued at.
Read more from Politico here. Campaign finance totals via OpenSecrets and the FEC.
