Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign said it raised $20 million in the second quarter of 2023, a number lower than what former President Donald Trump reportedly raked in that quarter — though none the candidate has released all of the information that they will ultimately release must be reported to the Federal Elections Commission later this month.
The DeSantis fundraiser only covers the first six weeks of its campaign, which kicked off on May 24th. Of which more than 8 million US dollars came within the first 24 hours of launching its campaign.
And what the campaigns bring in may end up being far less important than what their affiliated Super PACs bring in from wealthy donors: Never Back Down, the Super PAC that supports DeSantis as president, said it has since its inception in the Raised $130 million in March, bringing the total to even more When DeSantis ran for governor last year, he raised more than $60 million.
Trump, on the other hand It reportedly raised $35 million throughout the three-month fundraising period. Trump’s number also could not be confirmed by official evidence submitted to the Federal Elections Commission as of July 15. Neither campaign revealed how much they spent or how much cash they had on hand at the end of June. And the rest of the Republicans have yet to release their fundraising totals.
DeSantis’ number is more than double that Trump reported $9.5 million in the first six weeks of his election campaign, which begins at the end of November.
With seven months to go before the first primary, Trump is the undisputed frontrunner for the Republican nomination, beating DeSantis by more than 30 percentage points in most cases poll averages. Not only is Trump ahead, but his lead has been widening since the Florida governor entered the race, suggesting that Trump still holds great influence in the Republican Party and that early voters are unperturbed by DeSantis as Trump’s main opponent.
Trump and DeSantis are miles ahead in the polls of former Vice President Mike Pence, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Senator Tim Scott (RS.C.), former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and others who compose balloon field of candidates for the White House.
DeSantis and Trump are expected to lead by a significant margin in fundraising, with the possible exception of North Dakota Governors Doug Burgum and Ramaswamy, who are both expected to use their significant personal fortunes to fuel their campaigns to advance Scott used the $41 million he already had in a Senate campaign account to back his bid.
The former president has conducted extensive fundraising efforts related to his legal woes, contributing to a much larger fundraising total than last quarter — approximately $18.8 million. The $35 million amount is apparently split between his official account and leadership PAC Save America, and there are different rules on how each pot of money can be used.