Ron DeSantis Raises $20 Million in First Six Weeks of Campaign

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign hauled in $20 million in the first six weeks of the governor’s presidential campaign, his team announced on Thursday.

According to the announcement, the DeSantis campaign hauled in the $20 million in the first six weeks of his campaign, which he formally kicked off in late May. The DeSantis campaign is claiming that the haul is “the largest first-quarter filing from any non-incumbent Republican candidate in more than a decade.” Notably, $8.2 million of that was garnered in the first 24 hours of his presidential campaign, as DeSantis’s team originally made that announcement shortly after the governor’s launch. 

“It bests the $18.3 million former president and quasi-incumbent Donald Trump’s campaign raised during its first two fundraising quarters as a candidate ($3.8 in Q4 2022 and $14.5 in Q1 2023),” the DeSantis campaign claimed in an emailed announcement.

However, Trump’s team raised $9.5 million from his November announcement through the end of the year. And in the first quarter, he raised $18.8 million via his campaign and joint fundraising committee, for a total of $28.3 million.

Trump’s campaign recently announced his second quarter figures as well, which top $35 million via his campaign and his Save America PAC.

Meanwhile, the pro-DeSantis Never Back Down PAC has reportedly raised $130 million since March.

DeSantis campaign manager Generra Peck is counting DeSantis’s latest figures as a victory, asserting that “Republicans are excited to invest in a winner ready to lead America’s revival.”

The figures follow a continued stream of national- and state-level surveys continuing to show Trump as the “runaway frontrunner” in the race — a fact Steve Cortes, a former Donald Trump supporter who advises the pro-DeSantis super PAC Never Back Down, admitted over the weekend.

“Right now in national polling, we are way behind. I’ll be the first to admit that,” Cortes said during a Twitter Spaces discussion, admitting “an uphill battle” for DeSantis.

Trump has continued to criticize DeSantis on Truth Social, asserting that the governor is actively “hurting himself very badly for 2028.”