DeSantis' Top Donor Allegedly Cuts Off Funds

Facts

• On Friday, American entrepreneur Robert Bigelow stated that he would stop funding Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign unless the Republican makes a shift to attract moderate voters and new major donors.¹
• Bigelow specifically cited Florida's six-week abortion ban — which allows termination of pregnancy only when a woman's life is threatened or in cases of rape or incest — to emphasize his point that '[e]xtremism' doesn't get people 'elected.'²
• The billionaire founder of Budget Suites of America and Bigelow Aerospace, who has already handed $20M to the Never Back Down super political action committee, is reportedly considered DeSantis' largest individual donor.³
• The Never Back Down group raised $48M in the first half of 2023 on top of $82.5M transferred from DeSantis' state fundraising committee, but some of his high-profile supporters were allegedly absent in the paperwork filed with the Federal Election Commission last week.⁴
• Several DeSantis backers — including Ken Griffin, Rupert Murdoch, and Andy Sabin — have reportedly grown uncertain about his candidacy, as his campaign is notably failing to gain traction and polls show him trailing former Pres. Donald Trump by a large margin for the GOP nomination.⁵
• Recently DeSantis was widely condemned after he told a gathering in New Hampshire that, if elected to the White House, he would 'start slitting throats' in the federal bureaucracy on his first day in office, adding: 'You're going to see a huge, huge outcry because Washington wants to protect its own.'⁶

Sources: ¹Reuters, ²Newsmax, ³The Hill, ⁴Tampa Bay Times, ⁵Forbes and ⁶Guardian.

Narratives

• Pro-Trump narrative, as provided by Breitbart. DeSantis may reboot his failing presidential campaign as often as he wants, but it will never gain ground and still risks being superseded by other candidates. He has no personality and is an awful candidate — the Florida governor owes his skyrocketing political ascent solely to the support of the very man he is challenging for the GOP nomination, Trump.
• Anti-Trump narrative, as provided by Washington Post. While DeSantis' presidential bid is yet to take off two months after he formally entered the race, it's too early to count him out of contention, as challenging a clear front-runner demands a long-term effort in which debates are decisive. If he can successfully attract non-MAGA voters, while presenting himself as the only option able to fight progressives and win, DeSantis could make a comeback to win the nomination.

Predictions