Drew Wilson
Last month brought U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis his best fundraising haul since first announcing his campaign for Governor at the beginning of the year.
The Northeast Florida Republican’s campaign announced Monday that DeSantis brought in more than $3 million between his campaign account and his affiliated political committee, Friends of Ron DeSantis. That makes May his second most lucrative month behind January when he showed more than $3.3 million raised between the two accounts.
Neither report was viewable via the Florida Division of Elections as of Monday afternoon, and the campaign didn’t include DeSantis’ new on-hand total in the news release. The Donald Trump-backed candidate had about $7 million banked as of April 30, and the May effort puts his overall fundraising total at around $10.8 million.
Records available on the Friends of Ron DeSantis website show the committee brought in about $1.27 million last month, including a $500,000 check from Chicago-based hedge fund manager Kenneth C. Griffin, and $100,000 apiece from Jupiter businessman Lawrence F. DeGeorge, J.W. Childs Associates CEO John W. Childs and United Automobile Insurance Co.
Expenditures topped $117,000, including $32,736 to Seaborn Strategic for direct mail services, $28,250 to Ello Creative for media consulting and $23,411 to Ross Consulting for political consulting work.
Based on those figures, the committee had more than $7.26 million on hand heading into June.
While DeSantis has posted some impressive fundraising during his short time in the gubernatorial contest, Republican Primary opponent Adam Putnam held a fourfold lead in total fundraising at the end of last month. His cash on hand advantage may take a hit, however, as mid-month figures from his committee showed $226,000 in fundraising and nearly $3.25 million in spending through the first three weeks of May.
Most of that spending went toward media buys, an expense DeSantis has yet to incur in any substantive way due to his frequent appearances on Fox News.
Putnam had about $19 million on hand at the end of April. He has not yet announced his May fundraising numbers.
The winner of the DeSantis versus Putnam contest will the winner what recently became a five-way primary on the Democratic side. South Florida billionaire Jeff Greene announced Monday he would run for Governor as a Democrat, joining Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, former Congresswoman Gwen Graham, Orlando-area businessman Chris King and former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine.
The primary election is Aug. 28.
