DeSantis Raised $8.2 Million in 24 Hours After Announcement
In what may be the greatest in-kind donation to the DeSantis campaign, Mexico’s President said not to vote for DeSantis because he’s too tough on the border and illegal immigrants
So I logged in yesterday to the Twitter Space where Elon Musk was hosting Ron DeSantis for DeSantis’ announcement that he was running for president. I watched the number of people in the Space grow to high six figures. Reportedly the number reach about a million people but the last number I recall seeing was just under 700,000.
And then the technical problems, and the failure to launch on time. When I finally connected to a live feed, there were (approximately, my memory is a little fuzzy on this) close to 400,000 people in the Space. Certainly this was not the ignition and lift off Team DeSantis wanted, but if there’s a silver lining, the huge number of people simultaneously trying to log in to hear DeSantis should be a good sign for the campaign. Then began the typical campaign silly and childish 24-hours news cycle which no one will remember and no undecided or persuadable voter will care about.
The DeSantis campaign is reporting raising $8.2 million in the first 24-hours:
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida raised $8.2 million in his first 24 hours as a presidential candidate, his campaign said on Thursday, a huge sum that cements his standing as the leading Republican rival to Donald J. Trump.
Mr. DeSantis’s campaign began on Wednesday evening with a glitch-filled kickoff on Twitter, but that apparently did not slow donor enthusiasm. The campaign said on Wednesday that it had raised $1 million during a single hour.
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….
The sum is roughly double the $4 million that Mr. Trump’s campaign said it had raised in the 24 hours after his criminal indictment earlier this year, though most of that money was raised organically online.
The DeSantis sum includes both online contributions and donations secured by bundlers who had gathered on Thursday at the grand ballroom in the Four Seasons in Miami for what was called a Ron-O-Rama to make fund-raising calls for the campaign.
Bryan Griffin, a DeSantis spokesman, said the campaign was raising both primary and general election funds. The campaign can raise $3,300 per donor for both the primary and general election. He declined to say how money was earmarked for use only in the general election, should Mr. DeSantis become the nominee.
Amid all the chatter about his glitchy rollout, the horse-race polling & displeased donors, how will DeSantis 1st day fundraising total stack up v
BIDEN 2020: $6.3 m
BERNIE 2020: $5.9m (more than in 2015)
2023: Trump $4m post indictment
— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) May 25, 2023
DeSantis sets a record for 24 hour fundraising after a presidential campaign announcement.
But apparently the Twitter space glitch was the end of his campaign! https://t.co/bCyB8aYZ9w
— Rufus: Founding Father of Electabros (@ReturnNormalcy) May 25, 2023
Statement on DeSantis Fundraising from Make America Great Again Inc.: pic.twitter.com/HwsMT0Xf8Z
— RSBN 🇺🇸 (@RSBNetwork) May 26, 2023
Next up, the tour:
DeSantis is barnstorming the early primary states next week. pic.twitter.com/lIwI9GRVeQ
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) May 25, 2023
In what may be the greatest in-kind donation to the DeSantis campaign, Mexico’s President said not to vote for DeSantis because he’s too tough on the border and illegal immigrants:
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Thursday urged Latino voters not to back Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the next U.S. presidential election, accusing the Republican politician of trying to win votes at the expense of migrants.
DeSantis said Wednesday he would seek the 2024 Republican nomination for president and vowed to build a wall on the Mexico border, the latest in a series of hardline comments on immigration that he says resonate with Latino voters who want strong enforcement.
López Obrador dismissed those comments.
“All of his playing politics with migrants was because he wanted to be the Republican party candidate,” López Obrador told a government press conference. “I hope the Hispanics of Florida wake up and don’t give him a single vote.”
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took a shot at Gov. Ron DeSantis and urged Hispanic residents of Florida not to back the governor in his 2024 bid. https://t.co/LBkzuHxnNY
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) May 25, 2023
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Comments
A good, competitive primary will be good for the eventual nominee.
I will probably give to DeSantis. Trump let all those J6ers twist in the wind, and let Brian Kolfage be persecuted (We Build the Wall). Kolfage is an American hero.
You would have had him commit executive interference with the judiciary? Seriously?
The jan6 ers weren’t charged till AFTER President Trump left office and he has said he will pardon most of them amd he has given to their defenses
So calling bs
Well, no, as president, Trump could have issued blanket pardons for the J6 rioters, attendees, etc. without any need for even charges to be filed; this would have precluded the later witch hunts and FBI raids on innocent people whose phones simply showed them in or around DC that day and on those who simply entered the wide-open Capitol building, took a couple of selfies and left. Trump chose not to do that, and as a result those people–avid Trump supporters like you–have been hunted down, raided, terrorized, persecuted, unjustly prosecuted, held in horrific conditions, and physically and sexually abused for two plus years. I’m not okay with that, but I guess you are.
We have the wonderful clarity of. hindsight now, but Fuzzy, are you saying that if, DJT had offered blanket pardons, you wouldn’t have been critical?
No, I would not. Read my posts about J6 from that time. 🙂
Tortured and sexually abused? Sorry if you provided before but can you pls provide a link to a reputable source on that?
Sure: https://amgreatness.com/2022/08/28/lawyer-january-6-clients-are-being-tortured/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/capitol-riot-defendant-ryan-sammsel-viciously-beaten-guard-washington-dc-jail-lawyer-says/
If Trump hadn’t conned them into showing up in DC, there wouldn’t be a problem.
I couldn’t agree more. He 100% should have prevented the persecution but spending weeks with them following him around working triple overtime to make them as furious as possible, then holding a rally designed to make them furious where he made a speech to make them angry……..
Nobody on this planet gives a dam if he crossed the line into incitement (I agree he did not and I don’t give a dam) every one of the people being persecuted is just an ordinary person who trusted the wrong person and was in the wrong place at the wrong time and did something incredibly stupid.
How did he con them to show up? Secondly, this is the United States of America; Americans are free to go wherever in this country.
And the problem is that many of those folks believe – rightly – the election was stolen and that belief has in no way been assuaged.
No Americans are not ‘free to go wherever in this country’. There are all sorts of restricted access areas controlled by govt at all levels. Not to mention private property rights where the right of entry is up to the property owner.
Going to DC for the rally was ok. Entering the Capital building was not ok. That said for 99% of these folks the most they should face is simple trespass if that. The ass clowns that broke windows or moved barriers or opened doors much less those very few who assaulted LEO or others should face a higher degree of charge.
None of these folks who basically just followed the crowd and wandered around should have been hit with more than trespassing if that. Some of them appear from video to have granted access by LEO.
He conned them into thinking that showing up would get Pence and Congress to overthrow the election.
Sundance at CTH is among the hardest hit.
Oh come on now professor, you know he met with his globlaist billionaire buddies after the curious George Musk Twitter interview , right?
I’m pretty sure they pulled out their checkbooks and wrote in cursive for more than that
How much can we put you down for, Gonzo? 😀
How about providing a source for that little piece of slander.
No, huh. FWIW, what he REALLY did after that Twitter interview was to sit down with Trey Gowdy for a mainstream interview that by all accounts went off brilliantly.
gonzotx reminds me of an old time record player which starts to skip and keeps playing the same old note over and over and over again.
Gonzo
At this time I support Gov DeSantis over former President Trump. Why isn’t really important since we will not convince one another of the rightness of our decision.
I will commit to supporting (with cash and effort) whichever of the two earns the GOP nomination. I hope you will do the same.
Nah
Gee, what a shock.
Once a leftist always a leftist.
Assuming that those contributions were directly to his campaign, they were governed by legal maximums – which means that they were from those “little donors” that Trumpbots have been bragging about. Under the circumstances, 8+ million in 24 hours is pretty impressive.
And he didn’t even have to choke anybody.
“”The DeSantis sum includes both online contributions and donations secured by bundlers who had gathered on Thursday….”
Therein lies the bulk of his monies, I suspect. The little bitty nugget of “by bundlers” in contributions and donations.
.DeSantis is holding most of it back for the general? He’s no fool. He gets to keep that money if he loses the primary.
Here come the drive-by comments…
DeSantis said all the right things during his twitter announcement. I can support this guy if he wins the nomination. I may even be willing to donate to him, but only after he wins the nomination.
The only thing that bothered me was his plan to declare an emergency for the southern border. This is the “normalization” of emergency to increase executive power without Congress. Since Covid, I am VERY leary of federal power. Emergencies tend to linger for years, allow for executive orders that shred constitutional norms, and avoid the need for the normal legislative process.
I get that this would be for the “good cause” of controlling the border. But it opens the door for democrats to use the same mechanism. Are we ready for a “climate emergency” to be declared?
Trump did not declare a border emergency, yet illegal immigration was kept to a minimum during his term. The Feds have proven to misuse any power delivered to them. If the centerpiece of the DeSantis agenda is a “border emergency declaration”, then that is a giant red flag that I hope DeSantis pulls back.
Without declaring an emergency POTUS is dependent upon Congress to pass legislation and funding to act in the face of what is clearly an emergency at the border.
No the feds don’t need to grab more power but security of the border is already a federal responsibility, A responsibility they they ain’t meeting.
If DeSantis is the superstar that he is purported to be, then he should use this election to establish a working majority in Congress on his coattails that will enable him to accomplish his agenda. If he is unable to do so, then the use of emergency powers to get his way is unwarranted.
The appeal of DeSantis is that Florida has taken enormous steps under his leadership to increase liberty. The use of emergency powers is the antithesis of that. It enables federal bureaucracies to make rules without oversight to take away civil liberties.
I will never again support emergency powers without absolute proof that life, limb and liberty are on the line. The use of executive powers simply kicks the can down the road since the order will be immediately cancelled by a president of the opposite party. It is the lazy way out and I will not gamble my civil liberties on it.
Were you upset about Trump’s 2019 declaration of a national emergency to pull money out of the Pentagon to pay for sections of the wall? Or was that . . . you know, different? I wasn’t upset about it at all since it is within the presidential purview (under the National Emergencies Act) to declare national emergencies. Like Trump and DeSantis, I think our open Southern border is most definitely a national emergency.
I was okay with it at the time. It seemed clever, but history has since proven otherwise. When I was in the military, I observed the tyrannical underbelly of the interagency (aka deep state), but always thought that wiser heads would prevail. After Covid, we now know that is not necessarily true.
If Trump were to propose to declare an emergency upon entering office, I would be deadset against that also. In some ways, he, like the rest of us, probably did not fully understand the negative impacts of an emergency declaration as a way to implement policy. Now we do, as should both DeSantis and Trump. We should no longer tolerate this from either one of them.
Your objection that Trump did it too is not exactly a stellar defense. Isn’t DeSantis supposed to be better than Trump? In my view, planning to declare an emergency 18 months before the new presidential term has a banana republic feel to it.
Are we talking about the same thing, kelly? We are currently under dozens of, maybe more, national emergency declarations, some dating back many decades. Here’s a list just to Trump’s second year in office; he declared several that are still ongoing to this day. Here’s another list that includes those national emergencies declared by various presidents that have since been lifted. Here’s more, including more from Trump and also Biden’s.
How can you be against something and not seem to know what it is or that we are currently under national emergencies dating back nearly half a century (literally one from Carter’s presidency regarding Iran)? Puzzling.
I am aware of many national emergencies. I am aware that the provisions are increasingly being misused and administrative powers are extended by fiat. Health-related emergencies seem to offer the most potential for abuse. For example, who knew that election officials could unilaterally change voting procedures during a health crisis?
If a border emergency is declared, watch for the CDC to try connect it to a health emergency related to cross-border disease/epidemics.
So you don’t care about the dozens of existing states of emergency we are currently under being weaponized, just one that DeSantis proposed?
Uh huh.
You wrote: “For example, who knew that election officials could unilaterally change voting procedures during a health crisis?”
This is up to the states, in their state constitutions, not the federal government (we do not have national elections, per se, as you must know). And in some states, election officials most certainly could not, according to their own state constitutions, unilaterally change voting procedures. But Trump and his DOJ didn’t lift a finger, even though they knew it was going on. After the election, they suddenly cared, but by then, it was far too little, far too late. Amateur hour, really.
You wrote: “If a border emergency is declared, watch for the CDC to try connect it to a health emergency related to cross-border disease/epidemics.”
And watch a President Trump nod and grin about the great great American CDC or a President DeSantis shut that down so fast their heads will spin.
Concern about Trump misusing powers: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/01/presidential-emergency-powers/576418/
I think these concerns apply to all presidents.
Please do not misunderstand me. There are situations that require an emergency declaration. Let’s say that a solar flare destroys the power grid on the east coast. That would definitely be a catastrophic emergency for which the federal government is ill-prepared.
There is not much that can be done about previously issued emergency declarations. Most are rather innocuous. It is only in recent years that federal agencies have reinterpreted existing laws to take on more power during emergencies.
Your faith in DeSantis is nice, but an editor and blogger should be more skeptical. Otherwise, you are just drinking the kool-aid.
You wrote: “Your faith in DeSantis is nice, but an editor and blogger should be more skeptical. Otherwise, you are just drinking the kool-aid.”
DeSantis has been my governor for four and a half years, and I’ve been following him very closely. My “faith” in him, as you quaintly put it, is earned. I didn’t know what kind of governor he would be when I voted for him the first time, but I darned sure wasn’t voting for the crackhead mini-Obma, and as with Trump, I was pleasantly surprised when he took office and governed beautifully.
When the WuFlu hit, we all paid even closer attention to him, and he was seriously amazing during that whole nightmare. You may recall that when we first found out about it, we were all pretty concerned, even frightened, because we didn’t know what we were facing. DeSantis, included, of course (and Trump). But DeSantis set to work doing research, talking to experts in the field, following the data as it came in from around the world, holding pressers to ensure we all knew what he knew, and set to work to implement his plan. Protecting Floridians’ freedom to the point that we referred to our state as Free Florida. Some of us still refer to it as such. I haven’t seen a single reason to be skeptical of him, not one.
That said, he’s a politician, and I owe nothing to any politician. They are public servants, not demigods or saviors. If he screws up on something I deem important and significant enough, I will be done (because, you see, it’s not “faith” in the first place; he has earned my respect and support as my governor . . and he can throw that away far more quickly and easily than he earned it.).
Look, it’s not my fault you have no idea what an emergency declaration is or that we are currently living under dozens of them. Or that you aren’t the least concerned about any of them . . . just some future one by someone who hasn’t even won the GOP nomination (yet). That’s peculiar to me. But it wasn’t my intention to embarrass you; I really thought at first that you might be talking about something else (though it became clear quite quickly that you had no idea what you were talking about). Let’s just leave it at you thinking I’m not qualified for my job and that I’m “drinking the kool-aid.” I’m good with that. ;P
Neil Gorsuch on the declaration of emergencies:
“Despite that law, the number of declared emergencies has only grown in the ensuing years. And it is hard not to wonder whether, after nearly a half-century and in light of our Nation’s recent experience, another look is warranted.”
https://brownstone.org/articles/judge-neil-gorsuch-speaks-out-against-lockdowns-and-mandates/
His point (and mine) is that the potential for abuse is too great for us to support frivolous declarations of national emergency.
“The point of an emergency is that it’s a sudden, unforeseen, urgent kind of scenario,” says Jonathan Bydlak, director of the Governance Program at the R Street Institute.
If a presidential candidate “plans” to declare a national emergency, then by definition, it is not one. The plan to declare a national emergency is a frivolous use of the power in my opinion (and probably that of Gorsuch too).
If you cannot see that federal agencies are assuming more power, and so what was fine a few years ago is no longer okay today, then we really have little basis on which to debate.
I have knowledge of DeSantis as a part-time resident in Florida. Yes, he has done really well. But there are quite a few successful governors that flopped on the national stage. Hopefully DeSantis is not one of those.
But I don’t like that his border plan relies on a national emergency declaration. That’s like planning to amputate an infected body part before trying antibiotics. Massive overkill …. which is what we have seen for too long at the federal level.
The Bydlak quote was cut and pasted from Reason:
The Bydlak quote was cut and pasted from Reason:
https://reason.com/2023/05/19/gorsuch-condemns-breathtaking-covid-emergency-powers-that-crushed-civil-liberties/
I broadly agree with your preference that Congress act but there are lots of EO and findings and emergency declarations that every POTUS issues. If one were ever justified it is one that gets a border wall built.
“But it opens the door for democrats to use the same mechanism.”
Ha ha! It’s as if that door is closed now. You’ve got to be kidding me.
Some limits still exist. For example, there have been scattered reports of a potential “climate emergency” declaration. It has not happened yet,
If Republicans take liberties with emergency declarations, that only makes it easier for nonsense like climate emergencies to be taken seriously.
This is just the start of a very long election cycle; hard words will be spoken but begging for money will be paramount. We’ll see once debates commence.
I’m a Trumper (80% of the time) but I’m looking forward to a head-to-head debate with DeSantis.
I think DeSantis has certainly taken all the arguments and cries from the conservatives and changed Florida for the better.
If DeSantis gets the RNC nod, I’d drive 100mph to the ballot box and check off my selection for him.
Remember, Trump had about 200 people at his event when he announced his presidential campaign in my home state of Iowa. 200 people!!!
I’m honestly considering RFK Jr., so DeSantis is, to me, just a distraction. RFK Jr is pro-children, against big-Pharma, and definitely not a fan of the Deep State. On top of that he doesn’t have the kind of personality that would turn off a large swath of the electorate.
I think President Donald J. Trump was the best President ever, in spite of being under constant attack from all sides. And I think he would be the best person to try to continue to rebuild America.
I just don’t think he’s electable and we would end up with four more years of a meat puppet in the Oval Office. I don’t think DeSantis could beat the steal, either. But RFK Jr. could knock Joe out of the primaries and then beat either potential GOP candidate.
If Trump truly cared about the country and had a shred of self awareness, he would drop his presidential bid and enthusiastically work to elect Ron. This will never happen. If for some reason he drops out, he will call DeSantis a loser poopy face and tell everybody not to vote in a rigged election.
Or, DeSantis could have said 2024 is Trump’s fight and I am willing to forgo my ambitions to come up in 2028.
And if DeSantis loses I hope SomewhatTrumpers like you will swallow your stupid pride and vote for Trump. Because country and all, right?
Trump cannot win the general election. He is radioactive waste to independents and most women. He is too blind with rage over 2020 to see or understand that fact. Fraudci, Wray, Barr shows he is an incompetent boss. He allowed this cabal to neuter him. Fraudci alone disqualifies him as a serious candidate. And let’s not forget the “vaccine” and all of that attendant drama that he is responsible for during 2020, 2021! And yes I donated to Governor DeSantis Wednesday night.
He was polling at about 20% for the longest time. That $8.2 million amount of money raised would indicate a surge in the polls. As of today, it does not as Trump leads 54-21. Dollars don’t vote.
What? There have been no new polls released over night, at least not that I have seen or can find. The last one I see on RCP is from 5/19-5/22. Where did you see a more recent one?
See yesterday’s poll at 538. South Carolina 43-18 Trump.
I didn’t find that, do you have the link?
Found a mention with those numbers on NewsMax, Fuzzy. https://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/poll-south-carolina-donald-trump/2023/05/26/id/1121373/
Ooh, thanks, MrE! 🙂 It’s SC, and how interesting that it is showing pretty good gains by Tim Scott (12%) and rancid Nikki Haley (10%), but of course, it’s their state. That seems to have dug into both Trump’s (43% here, RCP avg. 53.9%) and DeSantis’ (18% here, RCP avg. 21.3%) numbers. Trump’s more so, but that’s not surprising, either.
It will be interesting to see either national polls or other state polls (where one or more of the candidates aren’t from that state), but this is definitely interesting to note as a first (sort of) post-DeSantis-announcement poll. It’s from the 24th-25th, so the 24th had to have been conducted largely before or during DeSantis’ announcement (unless it was conducted only in the evening, after the announcement). Also, this poll has a very strange (as in strangely large) margin of error at 4.38%. Anyway, very interesting, thanks for finding it!
How are your eyes doing, btw?
Thanks for asking, Fuzzy. I had a vitrectomy yesterday to get rid of floaters. Daughter who is a medical coder laughed at me when I texted her, still semi-doped up, and wrote that I’d had a visectomy. It’ll take a few weeks to clear up as it left me with a black eye where everything is blurry and lime-jello green. The cataract surgery from Dec/Jan left me with great distance vision – just need cheater readers now. My wife also had cataract surgery while we were in IL – she can see me clearly now, and she didn’t run – so that’s good. 😉 IL house has been sold – God really took care of us – we’re now back in Sequim, WA now full time. The folks who bought our IL house were from Tallahassee. Like us, they bought it over zoom for a 2nd home to be near an aging parent. Funny how things work out for the good, eh? 😉
That all sounds great, MrE (except the black eye and jello green blurry vision!). Yes, it sounds like you and your family are indeed blessed. I’m so happy for you all! 🙂
I want Ron DeSantis to stay Governor until he term limits out of office.
However, I sense that Trump is self-destructing so much that we may well lose Governor DeSantis for the good of the nation.
He’s already declared he’s running for the GOP nomination, so that ship has sailed since his second term is up in 2024 (at which point he is term limited out).
Between The Screaming-D’s and The Orange Crush, The Mexican President has some competition for greatest in-kind contribution.