A prominent GOP megadonor is reportedly joining the list of donors voicing reservations about Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL).
Hedge fund executive and billionaire Kenneth Griffin has been privately raising concerns about DeSantis’s position on abortion, Ukraine, and other issues, the New York Post reported. Despite Griffin’s and other prominent donors’ unease with him, DeSantis remains one of the favorite GOP candidates among high-dollar backers.
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Over recent weeks, Griffin has met with DeSantis, but privately, he is growing alienated with the governor’s signing of legislation to ban abortion after a heartbeat is detected, often as soon as at six weeks of gestation, and his characterization of the war in Ukraine as a “territorial dispute,” according to the New York Times. DeSantis later clarified that he opposed the Russian invasion and wants Ukraine to prevail.
Still, his misgivings about some of DeSantis’s policies may not deter him from donating to the governor down the line, according to the report.
Griffin donated over $5 million to DeSantis last cycle and praised the governor for having a “tremendous record” in an interview with Politico. He has also expressed a desire for the GOP to move on from former President Donald Trump, the 2024 primary front-runner. Last year, Griffin relocated his hedge fund from Chicago to Miami.
Other donors have raised concerns about DeSantis along similar lines. Earlier this month, GOP donor Thomas Peterffy revealed that he was ceasing donations to DeSantis over his more socially conservative policies.
“I have put myself on hold,” Peterffy told the Financial Times. “Because of his stance on abortion and book banning … myself, and a bunch of friends, are holding our powder dry.”
At the start of the year, DeSantis was widely considered one of the favorites among GOP donors, given his position as the top polling alternative to Trump.
Many top donors and conservative groups have been deeply apprehensive about Trump. For example, Americans for Prosperity Action, the political arm of a network with ties to Charles Koch, distributed an internal memo appearing to emphasize the need to “turn the page on the past several years,” implying Trump.
The Club for Growth, an anti-tax conservative group, has similarly signaled concerns about Trump, with its President David McIntosh telling the Washington Examiner he was “convinced that our weakest candidate for winning the White House is Donald Trump.”
Despite reports of donor hemorrhaging, DeSantis still appears to have some key backers in his camp. One of his leading donors, hotel mogul and aeronautics executive Robert Bigelow, appears as resolute as ever in his backing of the governor.
“I will give him more money and go without food,” Bigelow said, according to Time.
Bigelow is one of the largest donors to the DeSantis-aligned Never Back Down super PAC, contributing $20 million to it, which accounted for about two-thirds of the $30 million haul it announced between March 9 and April 3, per the report.
The figure is a massive uptick from the $10 million he donated to DeSantis last year. Bigelow noted that he differs with DeSantis on abortion but that the issue isn’t a deal breaker for him.
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Of the declared candidates, Trump reigns as king on the fundraising circuit. Last quarter, his campaign and allied organizations hauled nearly $19 million and pulled in another $15.4 million in the two weeks that followed, boosted by news of his indictment, according to figures from his campaign.
Due to the fact that DeSantis has not declared his candidacy, there is no campaign to gauge his strength among donors. Instead, top-dollar donor interest is largely seen through contributions to PACs as well as commentary on the race.
