Ron DeSantis political committee rakes in $4.5M in November

Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ political committee continued strong fundraising in November, with $4,531,294 spread among 1,232 new contributions, pushing the account just south of $67 million on hand.

The Friends of Ron DeSantis November haul was its lowest monthly total since July, when the committee brought in $4,228,978.

The leading November donor, with a $500,000 donation, was venture capitalist Walter W. Buckley Jr. of the Buckley Muething Capital Management Co.

Elaine Wold, a DeSantis donor from as far back as the 2018 campaign, gave the committee $250,000, a number that matched her 2018 contributions.

The DeVos family also donated, with four members stroking $50,000 checks to the committee, including Richard DeVos, the husband of former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Another notable contribution ($25,000) came from the Oliva Cigar Company, former House Speaker José Oliva‘s business.

Institutional donors also anted up, including the REALTORS and the Florida Police Benevolent Association. But a lot of the action on the report came from small-dollar donations as low as $4 and $5, offering more evidence the Governor is a national phenomenon.

DeSantis opened his campaign account in November, and recorded $1,490,429 in fundraising during the debut month from 11,070 individual contributions from across not just the state but the nation. The Republican Party of Florida cut the campaign a $100,000 check.

Democratic fundraising is starting to come in for November, but no one is matching DeSantis.

Democrat Charlie Crist touted raising more than $607,000 in November. That sum gave Crist more than $5 million raised, with $3.54 million cash on hand.

Nikki Fried, who launched her campaign in June, had about $3.36 million on hand and more than $216,000 raised in the month between her campaign and political committee, Florida Consumers First.

State Sen. Annette Taddeo had roughly $627,000 on hand through October, between her campaign account and her political committee, Fight Back Florida.  November numbers are pending for Taddeo.