Governor Ron DeSantis’ (R-FL) political operation was able to officially rake in a monumental $177.4 million, which is far more than any other governor in history, and this was before he made the choice to fly a group of illegal immigrants up to Martha’s Vineyard this past week, which sparked off stories across all top national news agencies.
As reported by Open Secrets, a review of the financial records for the state campaign highlighted that the re-election campaign for DeSantis had managed to raise well over $31.4 million since January of last year, all while the state-level PAC for DeSantis, Friends of Ron DeSantis, brought in another $146 million since 2019.
This overly massive political war chest has likely grown even further in the wake of his sending of the 50 illegal immigrants to the wealthy leftist enclave of Martha’s Vineyard this past week which resulted in anger from left-wingers and even brought on the attention of Old Uncle Joe’s border crisis.
A list was created by Open Secrets which showed the top 20 most likely candidates for president in the upcoming 2024 elections, which included Biden and former President Donald Trump (R), and DeSantis sat easily atop the list, crushing them in all fundraising since the start of 2021.
The top five candidates from that list, in order of fundraising totals, are:
- Ron DeSantis (R), governor of Florida, $174,285,801.
- J.B. Pritzker (D), governor of Illinois, $133,252,795.
- Donald Trump (R), former U.S. president, $131,052,563.
- Tim Scott (R), U.S. Senator from South Carolina, $35,325,367.
- Mike Pence (R), former U.S. vice president, $18,000,000.
Biden has only managed to raise roughly $11,850,907, while Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA), who has attempted to boost his national profile recently by going after DeSantis, only managed to bring in $6,776,976.
DeSantis is not at all being stingy or tightfisted with these campaign funds, however, and has handed out millions to assist the down-ballot Republicans to further increase GOP majorities in the state legislature. Looking in the opposite direction, Trump is not handing out any money whatsoever to assist Republican candidates as the various Republican leadership is trying to get him to financially assist the campaigns of Republican candidates that are falling behind.
DeSantis went after Biden due to the recent response from his administration to DeSantis sending a group of illegal migrants out to Martha’s Vineyard this past week by highlighting the overall lack of urgency that the admin portrayed in dealing with other issues.
“I also was a little bit perplexed when I heard that the president is scrambling to get his Cabinet together to try to address the fact that you have governors who are helping to relocate illegal aliens to sanctuary cities,” stated DeSantis. “Now, he didn’t scramble to get his Cabinet together when we had millions of people illegally pouring across the southern border.”
“He didn’t scramble to get his Cabinet together when you had 43, 53 migrants die in some trailer in Texas because they were neglected by the federal government,” DeSantis went on. “You didn’t see him scramble to get his Cabinet together when we had Americans that were victimized by criminal aliens that he let across the border. You didn’t see him scramble to get his Cabinet together when we hit record fentanyl deaths, which, that fentanyl is coming across his open border. It’s only when you have 50 illegal aliens end up in a very wealthy, rich sanctuary enclave that he decides to scramble on this.”
DeSantis expressed that as governor, he is still focused on continuing to “use every tool at our disposal to insulate the state of Florida from the negative ramifications of his reckless border policies.”
