Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida raised $8.2 million in his first 24 hours as a presidential candidate, his marketing campaign mentioned on Thursday, an enormous sum that cements his standing because the main rival to Donald J. Trump.
Mr. DeSantis’s marketing campaign started on Wednesday night with a glitch-filled kickoff on Twitter, however that apparently didn’t sluggish donor enthusiasm. The marketing campaign mentioned on Wednesday that it had raised $1 million throughout a single hour.
The $8.2 million determine is greater 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 haul raised by former Consultant Beto O’Rourke that very same yr.
The DeSantis sum contains each on-line contributions and donations secured by bundlers who had gathered on Thursday on the grand ballroom within the 4 Seasons in Miami for what was known as a Ron-O-Rama starting at 10:30 a.m. to make calls to lift funds for the marketing campaign.
A donor making calls within the room first disclosed that that they had raised $8.2 million and Bryan Griffin, a spokesman for Mr. DeSantis, confirmed the determine. All of the funds are so-called laborious {dollars} that the marketing campaign can use.
It was not instantly clear what number of donors had contributed within the first 24 hours.
An excellent PAC supporting Mr. DeSantis is planning for a $200 million finances however marketing campaign funds are far tougher to lift as a result of they face a strict donation cap.
The $8.2 million introduced in by Mr. DeSantis far outpaces how Mr. Trump started his 2024 fund-raising in late 2022. Mr. Trump had raised about $9.5 million within the six weeks after he introduced his marketing campaign in mid-November.
