Newcomer Bowen Kou adds $1M of his own money in opening month of SD 13 campaign

Supermarket mogul Bowen Kou doesn’t have a website up for his relatively new Senate campaign. His Instagram shows attendance at recent political events, but no mention of his own candidacy.

But he just dropped $1 million of his own money into his Senate District 13 run. He also raised more than $100,000 in outside contributions from across the country.

“I’m running for Florida Senate District 13 to continue to make Florida a beacon of freedom and economic opportunity,” he said in a statement. “Too often, our conservative values have come under attack, so I’m stepping forward to put my name in the ring for Senate District 13 to protect our way of life.”

Born in China, Bowen fled the nation fearing persecution for his Christian faith. In 2011, he founded Fresh International Market, an Asian grocery, in Michigan. Bowen’s campaign said the business employs more than 500 people nationwide, and the company website shows additional locations in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina and Texas.

Over 18 days in March, Bowen received 134 different donations from around the country. That included 103 checks for the maximum allowed $1,000, from restaurateurs, retailers and businesses. Donations included $1,000 from Purple Yam, a Winter Garden restaurant registered to Hong Rickett and Xiaohong Zhang that opened in 2021. It’s located in the same Orange County community where Bowen lives.

Other Florida donors include retail executive Jiawei Zhao and supermarket buyer Simon Yao Leung.

His list of donors includes those in the grocery and wholesale foods industry, but also professionals from across the nation listing occupations in law, technology, finance and a host of fields.

Bowen’s presence in the race, and the injection of seven figures into his campaign account so early, proves an interesting development in an already high-profile race. He’s running to succeed Sen. Dennis Baxley, a Lake County Republican who cannot run again thanks to term limits.

This week, Clermont City Councilman Ebo Entsuah, a former legislative aide to now-Gov. Ron DeSantis, filed for the seat. Rep. Keith Truenow, a Tavares Republican serving his second term in the House, launched his campaign for the seat as well.

Both of those candidates have a history of winning elections in Lake County, which makes up a bulk of the Senate district. CJ Blancett, a retired investigator, will also compete in the Republican Primary field.