The governor of Florida has more cash for a potential White House campaign than former President Donald Trump, an early signal of the strength he could bring to the 2024 presidential race, particularly the GOP primary, if he enters it.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has more than twice as much money sitting in a Florida political action committee account as Trump has sitting in his presidential campaign account and a related federal PAC.
Don’t count him out:Ron DeSantis’ donors know he’s struggling. They still want him to be president in 2024.
When money raised from the two men’s super PACs is added in, DeSantis’ advantage is smaller, but he still leads Trump by tens of millions of dollars. Super PACs are federal accounts that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to run advertisements but can’t coordinate with campaigns.
The numbers show DeSantis has money behind him that could help when he does declare his candidacy, even though the 2024 presidential race is still in its infancy and even though he hasn’t formally launched a presidential campaign.
Here’s how the numbers break down:’
How much money has DeSantis raised?
DeSantis raised just under $29 million for his 2022 campaign for governor, which he won by a 20-point margin, according to records from the Florida Department of State. The campaign spent every dollar of it as of Feb. 4, according to the latest campaign filing.
The main chunk of cash he is sitting on is in a political action committee called Friends of Ron DeSantis. The PAC raised $225.7 million from the beginning of 2018 through the end of March and spent $139.8 million, leaving him with $85.9 million in the bank.
How much money does Donald Trump have?
Trump’s presidential campaign raised $18.3 million from when he announced his campaign in November through the end of March and spent a little over $4.3 million, leaving him with $13.9 million in cash, according to records from the Federal Election Commission.
Trump’s political action committee Save America had $18.3 million in cash at the end of 2022, the most recent date that data is available. In addition to his campaign account, that gives him a total of about $32.2 million, less than half of the cash amount that DeSantis most recently reported he was sitting on.
How much do DeSantis and Trump have in super PACs?
DeSantis’ federal super PAC, Never Back Down, raised $30 million in the first month since it launched in March, according to NBC News. Because it is so new, there are no records available yet from the Federal Election Commission.
Trump’s super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., ended 2022 with $54.1 million, the most recent information available from the Federal Election Commission. Most of the money that went to the super PAC in 2022 came not from direct donors but from Save America, the former president’s main fundraising machine.
When super PAC money is added to the campaign totals, DeSantis has about $116 million to Trump’s $86.1 million.
Soft money: Can DeSantis use his Florida campaign funds for 2024?
The fact that $85.9 million of DeSantis’ money is in a Florida PAC account creates the potential for a legal problem if he wants to use it for a presidential campaign. Experts call the sum “soft money” because it was raised under Florida’s campaign finance laws instead of federal campaign finance laws.
Saurav Ghosh, the director of federal campaign finance reform at the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center, said his organization’s position is that it would be illegal for DeSantis to transfer soft money to a federal account. However, he said the Federal Election Commission has not held that opinion in similar cases.
Ghosh pointed to a situation where a Florida account linked to U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., converted money raised under the state’s campaign finance law into a federal super PAC. Ghosh said some commissioners said it was effectively independent money because Donalds distanced himself from the group before the transfer was made.
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