The DeSantis campaign raised $8.6 million in the first 24 hours after its rocky launch on Twitter Spaces, demolishing the previous first-day fundraising record for presidential campaigns.
Summary
The Ron DeSantis presidential campaign raised $8.6 million in the first 24 hours after its rocky launch on Twitter Spaces, demolishing the previous first-day fundraising record for presidential campaigns.
- As the New York Times noted, “The $8.2 million figure is more than the $6.3 million that Joseph R. Biden Jr. raised in his first 24 hours as a candidate in 2019, or the $6.1 million raised by former Representative Beto O’Rourke that same year.”
- DeSantis’ total includes $1 million that the campaign raised just the first hour after his launch.
- The campaign’s massive fundraising haul may put to rest concerns about his campaign’s ability to go the distance after his announcement went awry.
- His launch event and the video he posted shortly before the Twitter Spaces event began received more than 30 million views within 15 hours of his launch.
- The Florida Governor is planning an early state campaign tour for his first full week on the trail as a presidential candidate. DeSantis is scheduled for events in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina throughout next week.
- Politico reported on the DeSantis campaign’s first-day donor summit in Miami. DeSantis aides told donors that “Trump’s current polling lead was being inflated by sympathy from Republican voters over his indictment in New York…They conceded that the former president would likely not go below roughly 35 percent support in a primary but that such a floor allowed for DeSantis, his strongest rival, to take a larger share of the remaining 65 percent of the vote.”
- The New York Times outlined the policy areas where the DeSantis team believe Trump could be vulnerable in a GOP primary. DeSantis plans to deliver policy victories that Trump failed to deliver – building a border wall, for example – along with cutting spending and standing tough against China.
- The Washington Post noted DeSantis hasn’t hesitated to respond to the blizzard of attacks being sent his way by the former president. “Well, obviously [Trump]’s attacking me from the left,” DeSantis said in a radio interview. DeSantis reportedly “old supporters he expects to ramp up his jabs at Trump but meet the former president’s relentless and often personal attacks with more select rebuttals focused on policy — rather than “get in the gutter” with Trump.”
- The Wall Street Journal observed DeSantis “is already looking for a reboot” after the glitch-ridden Twitter Spaces launch. Fortunately for DeSantis, “Donors assembled in Miami shrugged off the mishap and enthusiastically greeted DeSantis Thursday, according to two people familiar with the gathering, and were pleased with the volley of interviews he conducted.”
- National Review noted DeSantis’ haul includes “both online contributions and donations secured by callers who participated in a ‘Ron-O-Rama’ on Thursday to make calls to fundraise for the campaign.” The total does not include the $100 million the pro-DeSantis Never Back Down super PAC plans to spend in the runup to the primaries.
- The New York Post covered DeSantis’ response to criticism from Trump. “I think a lot of what he’s doing is showing everybody that he understands that I’ve got a good chance to beat him,” DeSantis told a New Hampshire media outlet on Thursday, referring to the volley of attacks he’s faced from Trump.
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© Dominic Moore, 2023
