Daniel Perez stacks $490K to defend HD 116 in best fundraising month this cycle

Image via MyFloridaHouse.gov

With less than a year before the 2022 General Election, Rep. Daniel Perez’s powerful fundraising performance has made challenging him for House District 116 a long-shot prospect.

A Miami Republican with a lock to lead the Florida House as long as he continues to hold office through 2024, Perez stacked close to $490,000 in November toward his re-election bid — his best fundraising month this cycle.

He now holds more than $1.5 million between his campaign and political committees, Conservatives for a Better Florida and Miami United PC.

Perez’s most significant single contribution last month was a $50,000 check from the Seminole Tribe of Florida, which is in a legal battle over the future of gambling in the state. Las Vegas casino giant Caesars Entertainment gave Perez $10,000, as did Louisville horse racing complex Churchill Downs.

Trade groups and union organizations turned out for Perez last month as well. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees donated $35,000, Perez’s second-largest single contribution.

Perez received $15,000 apiece from Service Employees International Union Florida, Voice of Florida Business PAC and Florida Prosperity Fund, a PC former state Rep. Tom Feeny runs.

United Faculty of Miami Dade College and SEIU Local 1991, which represents some 5,000 registered nurses, physicians, and other medical professionals, each gave $2,500.

Speaking of health care, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America donated $12,500 to Perez. Insurer Humana chipped in $10,000.

Irish biopharma corporation Alkemers Inc. and cannabis company Curaleaf Florida both gave $5,000.

CDR Maguire, a Miami-based company that provides health assistance, infectious disease aid and COVID-19 testing, among an array of other services spanning myriad disciplines and industries, gave $2,500. So did San Francisco biotech firm Genetech.

Perez continued to enjoy support from the energy, petroleum and automotive sectors, including $15,000 from Duke Energy, $7,500 from Sunshine Gasoline Distributors, $7,500 from the Florida Petroleum Marketers Association and $2,500 from the South Florida Automobile Dealers Association.

Other noteworthy donations included $25,000 from Miami lawyer Robert Rubenstein; $17,500 from the lobbying arm of the Florida Justice Association; $15,000 from American Flood Action PC, which former state Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff runs; $15,000 from Boca Raton personal injury law firm Ged Lawyers; $12,500 from Tampa lawyer Christopher Ligori; and $11,000 from telecommunications giant Comcast.

Perez received $10,000 each from Iowa-based career education guidance company Kuder Inc.; Keeping Florida Affordable, a PC run by former U.S. Ambassador John Rood; public affairs firm Mata Consulting; and Jacksonville injury law firms Pajcic & Pajcic and Farah & Farah.

He also got $7,5000 from the GEO Group, a private prison operator headquartered in Boca Raton.

Perez outraised what he spent in November more than fivefold. His campaign and PC ledgers show he paid out just over $93,000 last month.

That included $28,000 to Miami-based Red Road Consulting for “fundraising/consulting.” He spent another $6,500 on Tallahassee-based consulting firm Taylor Strategies.

He also paid $10,400 to Coral Gables accounting firm Fiore CPA.

Perez paid about $12,000 on a single lodging expense to Alpine Property Management, a Crested Butte, Colorado-based company that oversees short-term vacation rentals across the U.S., including in Florida.

Another $475 went to Avis Car Rental.

As Perez does frequently, he donated to the election campaigns of other Florida Republicans. Fellow Rep. Anthony Rodriguez, running for the Miami-Dade County Commission, got $25,000. House Speaker Chris Sprowls received $10,000.

HD 116 covers part of the city of Doral and a large swath of unincorporated Miami-Dade, including portions of the western neighborhoods of Kendall, Sunset, Westwood Lakes, Westchester, University Park and Fontainebleau.

If proposed redistricting plans for Florida reach approval, Perez’s listed home will remain barely inside HD 116 as one of two houses on the district’s southeast corner.

Perez won his seat in a 2017 Special Election with nearly 66% of the vote. More than 57% of voters re-elected him a year later.

On Nov. 3, 2020, he trounced Democrat Bob Lynch by capturing roughly 63% of the vote.

No one has announced plans to challenge Perez next year.