Desantis’s Campaign Says They Raked In $8.2 Million In Fundraising In First 24 Hours

Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican from Florida, successfully amassed a whopping $8.2 million in fundraising within the first day after announcing his presidential candidacy, as confirmed by his campaign to Fox News on Thursday.

Table of Contents show

The impressive fundraising performance by DeSantis has been seen as a strategic move by his campaign to demonstrate his political strength and to highlight the vigorous support and excitement for the Florida governor.

Trump currently leading polls over DeSantis

This comes as he steps into the Republican race for the 2024 nomination, where former President Donald Trump is currently leading in recent polls.

DeSantis’s fundraising achievement surpassed the previous record set by President Biden, who, as a presidential candidate, managed to raise $6.3 million in the first day after his campaign was launched in 2019.

This fundraising figure by DeSantis includes online donations and the finances accumulated by bundlers during a fundraising event hosted by DeSantis in Miami, Florida.

‘Grassroots Republicans’ are uniting behind DeSantis

Generra Peck, the campaign manager, stated, “This historic fundraising haul shows that grassroots Republicans across the country are uniting behind Governor DeSantis’ vision for our Great American Comeback.”

Prominent Republican donor and oil drilling CEO Dan Eberhart, who is a DeSantis supporter and attended the Miami fundraising event, commented to Fox News, “That’s an enormous haul for the first 24 hours and shows that there are thousands of donors big and small behind the governor.”

DeSantis officially announced his presidential candidacy on Wednesday via a campaign launch video, first disclosed by Fox News.

DeSantis’ announcement was marred by technical problems

However, the announcement was marred by severe technical issues on Twitter, where he appeared alongside Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter and a prominent business magnate.

Despite the technical challenges, the DeSantis campaign framed the situation as a “break the internet” moment due to the high interest in the campaign’s launch.

However, Trump and his allies saw this episode as a debacle. Using his Truth Social media platform, Trump posted a video of a crashing rocket with the caption “Ron! 2024”.

Also Read: Shocking Revelations: Ron DeSantis’s Bold Move To Cast Trump As A Loser

Trump’s campaign takes aim at DeSantis

Moreover, Trump’s spokesman, Steven Cheung, told Fox News that “Ron DeSantis can’t run away from his disastrous, embarrassing, and low energy campaign announcement.”

Despite the criticism, the DeSantis campaign maintained a positive outlook, noting they were able to raise $1 million in online donations in the hour following the governor’s candidacy announcement.

In Miami on Thursday, DeSantis met with top donors and fundraisers.

Eberhart, who previously contributed $100,000 and raised half a million dollars for former President Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign, projected, “I think there are a bunch of donors waiting to get off the sidelines, waiting for DeSantis to enter,” adding, “I expect there to be a coalescing of conservative donors around Ron DeSantis.”

DeSantis’ announcement ‘broke the system’

A source at the Miami fundraising event mentioned that despite the Twitter mishap, DeSantis’ financial backers believed that “there was so much interest that it broke the system; it’s not the governor’s fault.”

The aim of the Miami meeting was to generate further funds that the DeSantis campaign could present in the coming week as a token of strength – the New York Times first reported the news of DeSantis’ record-breaking 24-hour fundraising achievement.

Fundraising and polling are significant indicators of a candidate’s popularity and power. The funds collected by candidates are used for various campaign activities such as travel, ads creation and broadcasting, data operations, expanding campaign staff, and encouraging voter turnout.