Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign entered July with $12.2 million on hand, according to documents filed Saturday with the Federal Election Commission, a sizable sum of money the Florida Republican hopes will help him make up lost ground in his race to defeat former President Donald Trump in the 2024 GOP presidential primary.
DeSantis raised $20 million in the first five weeks of his campaign but spent $7.8 million in the same time period, the documents showed, meaning the governor on average spent roughly $1.5 million a week after entering the race.
The overall fundraising figure of $20 million — raised from when the governor entered the race on May 24th to the end of the FEC’s fundraising quarter on June 30th — matches the numbers DeSantis’ campaign announced last week. But the campaign did not say how much money it had spent or how much cash it had on hand at the end of June.
More than $8 million of the campaign’s overall $20 million fundraising haul came in the first 24 hours after DeSantis announced, according to a campaign official. Contributions to campaigns are capped at $6,600, per FEC regulations, half of which can be used in a primary.
The Super PAC backing DeSantis, Never Back Down, also said last week that it had raised $130 million, a massive financial haul aided by a more than $80 million contribution from the governor’s Florida-based campaign account.
It’s not unusual for a campaign to spend millions of dollars early in a race: Many candidates, for instance, make steep investments identifying and reaching out to potential small-dollar donors that they hope helps them raise even greater sums of cash later on in the campaign.
DeSantis has had a rocky start to his presidential campaign, losing support in polls of the primary while the race’s front-runner, Trump, gains more and more traction with voters. The governor has insisted, however, that he is playing a long game in the primary, happy to steadfastly build support with voters in the race’s early states, like Iowa.
