Ron DeSantis committee rakes in $7.7M in January donations; candidate account reports another $2.2M

The committee supporting Gov. Ron DeSantis’ re-election reported collecting more than $7.7 million in new donations in January alone. It was the biggest haul in 10 months for the Friends of Ron DeSantis, which closed the month with nearly $77.8 million in cash on hand.

On top of that, DeSantis’ official candidate account reported another $2.27 million raised during the month. The Republican incumbent held $3.73 million in cash as of the start of February.

Large sums of that came from two political organizations. The Republican Party of Florida donated $1.7 million to the campaign, while the Republican Governors Association chipped in another $1.5 million, both to the political committee. Those two donations constituted more than 40% of donations DeSantis’ committee collected during the month.

The state party also provided more than $330,000 worth of in-kind support, including use of campaign staff, directly to the Governor’s gubernatorial campaign.

Three individuals each donated $250,000: Palm Beach money manager Paul T. Jones, Illinois packer Richard Uihlein and Miami Beach investment manager James Pallotta.

A dozen more checks worth $100,000 also made it to the account, much of that from development and construction firms like Cape Coral-based Creighton Companies.

In total, those six-figure checks made up $5.15 million of the $7.7 million collected in the month.

But donations ranged from those major political donations down to as little as $4.

Other noteworthy contributions included $100,000 from domestic well-drilling brothers Harvey Youngquist and Tim Youngquist; $25,000 from West Palm Beach-based mega-developer and philanthropist Murray Goodman; and $25,000 from Richard Corbett, the real estate developer behind the International Mall and Bay Street who was among those that witnessed the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in 1968.

Donations to candidate accounts cap out at $3,000, and 121 individuals gave that maximum amount.

The totals DeSantis reports continue to eclipse whatever his Democratic opponents have raised.

Democrat Charlie Crist’s committee, Friends of Charlie Crist, has yet to report January figures but collected just over $3.2 million in all of 2021. Democrat Nikki Fried’s Florida Consumers First committee also hasn’t posted January reports and raised just over $2.4 million last calendar year, and under $5.3 million since its formation in mid-2018 during her run for Agriculture Commissioner.

DeSantis’ committee also continues to spend generously as well, but that’s relative. The organization burned through $110,067 in January, most of that on fundraising costs, including $43,834 with Texas fundraising consultant The McIntosh Company. He also used another $10,000 on fundraising consultant services with Tallahassee-based HMB Strategies.

The campaign is clearly relying on electronic donations heavily, and racked up $28,28 in credit card processing fees with Anedot. It also paid $10,881 to Tampa accounting firm Robert Watkins & Company to keep all these numbers straight.

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated Fried’s 2021 fundraising total.

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Jesse Scheckner of Florida Politics contributed to this story.