JOIN USDeSantis campaign says it raised $8.2 million in first 24 hours
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis raised $8.2 million in his first 24 hours as a presidential candidate, his campaign said Thursday, a huge sum that cements his standing as the leading Republican rival to former President Donald Trump.
DeSantis’ campaign began Wednesday evening with a glitch-filled kickoff on Twitter, but that apparently did not slow donor enthusiasm. The campaign said Wednesday that it had raised $1 million during a single hour.
The $8.2 million figure is more than the $6.3 million that Joe Biden raised in his first 24 hours as a candidate in 2019, or the $6.1 million raised by former Rep. Beto O’Rourke that same year.
The haul will immediately infuse his campaign with the money needed to finance a growing political operation and aggressive travel schedule that will take the governor to 12 cities across three states next week.
The sum is roughly double the $4 million that Trump’s campaign said it had raised in the 24 hours after his criminal indictment earlier this year, though most of that money was raised organically online.
The DeSantis sum includes both online contributions and donations secured by bundlers who had gathered Thursday at the grand ballroom in the Four Seasons in Miami for what was called a Ron-O-Rama to make fundraising calls for the campaign.
Bryan Griffin, a DeSantis spokesperson, said the campaign was raising both primary and general election funds. The campaign can raise $3,300 per donor for both the primary and general election. He declined to say how money was earmarked for use only in the general election, should DeSantis become the nominee.
A donor making calls in the room first disclosed that the campaign had raised $8.2 million, and Griffin confirmed the figure. All the funds are so-called hard dollars that the campaign can use.
The sum does not include any of the funds that the pro-DeSantis super PAC, Never Back Down, has raised in recent months into a Draft DeSantis account that can be directly transferred to the campaign, according to Griffin. It is unclear how much money is in that account.
It was not immediately clear how many donors contributed in the first 24 hours.
At the Four Seasons in Miami, Lou Barletta, a former congressman from Pennsylvania and one-time Trump ally, said he spent 7 1/2 hours calling contacts for donations to DeSantis’ campaign, only breaking to use the bathroom and grab a buffet lunch.
“There was so much enthusiasm in that room,” Barletta said. “I had very, very few people say no to me on those calls.”
DeSantis helped make calls for parts of the day, according to several donors in attendance, and on Thursday evening, he and his wife, Casey, were scheduled to meet with donors in what was billed as a “special celebration.”
The super PAC supporting DeSantis is planning for a $200 million budget, but campaign funds are far harder to raise because they face a strict donation cap.
The $8.2 million brought in by DeSantis far outpaces how Trump began his 2024 fundraising in late 2022. Trump had raised about $9.5 million in the six weeks after he announced his campaign in mid-November.