OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The Sunshine State governor could teach other Republicans a lesson or two about how to raise massive amounts of cash for their campaigns.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has put together an astoundingly large war chest for his reelection, according to recent fundraising stats compiled by The Center Square. Citing data from Transparency USA, as of Sept. 2, DeSantis had raised $166,578,634, with the top donor being the Republican Governors Association, with a donation of $17.35 million, the outlet noted.
“DeSantis is running for his second term against Democrat Charlie Crist, a former Republican governor of Florida who switched parties to run for Congress as a Democrat,” The Center Square reported, adding: “According to an Oct. 5 Mason-Dixon poll, DeSantis is projected to beat Crist by a vote of 52%-41%. A RealClear Politics average of polls has him leading by 11 points.”
The outlet added:
None of the other six governors running for reelection evaluated by Transparency USA have raised anywhere near the amount that DeSantis has.
The evaluation excludes Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who has largely self-funded his political campaign, giving himself $110 million this year alone.
The governor who raised the second largest amount behind DeSantis on Transparency USA’s list was Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. Abbott, who’s running for his third term, raised $69,538,463, according to reporting data from Jan. 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022.
By late September, DeSantis’ campaign had managed to rake in a whopping $177.4 million, The Daily Wire reported last month.
According to a survey earlier this month, DeSantis leads his Democratic challenger, Rep. Charlie Crist, by double digits, despite suffering non-stop attacks by Democrats and the left-wing corporate media.
The Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy poll found that 52 percent of likely voters said they plan to cast a ballot for the GOP governor versus 41 percent who said they planned to vote for Crist. That’s an 11-point deficit.
Notably, the survey found that DeSantis is leading Crist in almost every area of the state with the exception of the southeastern portion that has traditionally remained in Democratic hands. Crist served as a GOP governor of the Sunshine State for a single term, from 2007-2011.
The Washington Examiner noted further:
DeSantis also enjoys high approval ratings in the state, with 55% approving of his job performance, according to the poll. Those numbers are expected to change in the coming weeks as the governor continues to lead the state’s response to Hurricane Ian, which tore through Florida last week and destroyed several buildings, and left several without power.
Some have criticized DeSantis’s response to the hurricane, primarily pointing to the delayed evacuation of Lee County, which was hit hard by Ian. However, others have argued that local officials are responsible for making those decisions rather than the governor.
“I don’t think it was a problem, and, if it was, the hurricane just wiped it out,” Brad Coker, a pollster for Mason-Dixon, said, according to NBC News. “DeSantis is going to be Governor Hurricane for the next couple of weeks. The disadvantage Crist has is twofold: He’s completely out of the news, and he never managed a hurricane, so he can’t stand up and point to what he did. So Crist is totally, totally defanged.”
The state of Florida has been trending Republican for years but the party has managed to outpace Democratic voter registration over the past year for the first time in more than a century, all under DeSantis’ leadership.
Nevertheless, the governor is continuing to campaign even as he has his hands full dealing with the fallout of Ian, which he has been blamed for botching by Democrats.
The GOP governor went to a Waffle House restaurant in Punta Gorda following Hurricane Ian earlier this month, where he manned the griddle to fix breakfast for emergency workers.
“@WaffleHouse is one of the first restaurants in Charlotte County to reopen and provide hot meals as we work together to serve Floridians after #HurricaneIan,” DeSantis noted on Twitter. “Thank you for providing meals to the linemen working to restore power.”
.@WaffleHouse is one of the first restaurants in Charlotte County to reopen and provide hot meals as we work together to serve Floridians after #HurricaneIan.
Thank you for providing meals to the linemen working to restore power. pic.twitter.com/w0AkexcUeU
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) October 1, 2022
