Trump and DeSantis lead in latest round of GOP fundraising

Political action committees supporting the wide array of presidential candidates released their semiannual federal financial disclosures on Monday, offering a window into the money behind Republican candidates.

Former president Donald Trump, who according to recent polls is the favored candidate to clinch the Republican nomination, is significantly leading the field in fundraising. With so much cash, Trump will have a deep well to draw from for campaign rallies and ad placement. But the super PACs for other candidates, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, are also accumulating a significant amount of money.  

The joint fundraising committee supporting Trump, the thrice-indicted former president, raised more money than any other candidate’s PAC this year: $53.9 million, according to FEC filings.

But Trump’s mounting legal woes — his three indictments on charges of paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels, mishandling classified documents, and conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and nearly 80 charges ranging from obstruction of justice to conspiracy to defraud the United States — have cost him.

The Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee has spent more than $52 million this year and has just over $5.6 million in cash on hand. Save America, another PAC supporting Trump, has only $3.6 million cash on hand — it had ended 2022 with more than $18 million. Save America PAC has been financing Trump’s legal defense, spending more than $40 million on legal costs for him and various associates who have also been charged with crimes, according to the Washington Post.

A super PAC supporting DeSantis called Never Back Down, Inc., is the most flush with cash among the GOP candidates, having raised $130 million in the first half of 2023. But the majority of the money that Never Back Down raised came from just four sources, according to CNN.

Businessman Robert Bigelow, who owns the extended-stay apartment chain Budget Suites of America, was the single biggest donor to the PAC supporting Desantis, according to Politico. He contributed $20 million to the super PAC. The other biggest donations, according to CNN, came from Empower Parents PAC, DeSantis’ former state political committee; a conservative nonprofit called Faithful & Strong Policies; and venture capitalist Douglas Leone. Never Back Down also received large donations from the influential conservative billionaire couple Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein and Standard Industries co-CEO David Millstone.

A super PAC supporting former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has received nearly $5.9 million since he announced his campaign on June 6. The Christie PAC received a $100,000 contribution from Trump’s extremely short-lived White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, according to CNN. His PAC received $100,000 from Harlan Crow, the conservative billionaire at the center of a series of ethics scandals involving Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. The Christie super PAC also received a $250,000 contribution from Pennsylvania billionaire Jeffrey Yass.

Among the remaining GOP candidates in the race, a super PAC for South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott raised $20 million in June, according to FEC filings. Trust in the Mission — or TIM PAC — announced it would be spending a whopping $40 million in ads. The super PAC supporting Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, has raised $18.7 million so far this year, according to NBC News. Meanwhile the primary super PAC for Mike Pence, Trump’s former vice president, has only raised $2.7 million this year, according to CNN.

Finally, there’s Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Despite the fact that Kennedy is running as a Democrat, his controversial, racist views on COVID-19, vaccines, mass shootings, and the assassinations of his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and his father, former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, have made him popular in some GOP circles. Businessman and longtime GOP donor Timothy Mellon gave $5 million to Kennedy’s American Values 2024 PAC, according to Politico. That’s more than half of the $9.8 million his PAC has raised in total this year. Mellon gave more than $20 million to a PAC supporting Trump’s reelection campaign in 2020, according to Yahoo News.

The Republican presidential primaries will kick off with elections in Iowa and Nevada.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.