Spent $130 million

Super PAC supporting DeSantis spent $130 million on travel, consulting and canvassing

The super PAC ended the year with $14 million in cash on hand.

By KIMBERLY LEONARD

Never Back Down, the super PAC supporting Ron DeSantis’ failed 2024 presidential bid, spent more than $130 million over the course of last year, with millions of dollars going toward its canvassing operation, travel and media consulting, among other expenses.

It raised $145 million, the vast majority of which was transferred from a Florida-based DeSantis committee. Only $14 million was raised during the second half of 2023 — an indication of the steep drop-off in donor interest in the governor as his standing in the race plummeted.

DeSantis’ fundraising for his campaign also dropped off significantly during the final three months of 2023, as polling showed him far behind Donald Trump in the nomination fight.

DeSantis raised $6.7 million and spent $9.3 million, according to filings the campaign submitted to the Federal Elections Commission. Despite the multi-million dollar investment in the race, DeSantis ended his campaign earlier this month after coming in 30 points behind Trump in the Iowa caucuses.

All told, the political operations spent at least $6,700 spent per vote in Iowa, given that 23,491 caucus goers supported DeSantis and the campaign spent $28.2 million last year. (The figure is an under-estimate, since the first two weeks in January aren’t included in Wednesday’s reports.)

The DeSantis campaign outsourced a significant amount of traditional campaign tasks to Never Back Down.

A POLITICO analysis of Never Back Down expenses posted Wednesday, which stretch from July to December, show the PAC spent $23 million on a much-publicized field operation of door knockers to encourage Iowans and voters in other early primary states to support the governor.

Never Back Down spent more than $3.6 million on payroll, $6.4 million on survey research, nearly $660,000 on stage equipment and lighting and $1.4 million on media consulting. It spent more than $900,000 on luxury bus company Premiere Transportation. The PAC drove DeSantis as a special guest across early voting states, including Iowa, where he visited all 99 counties in the state.

The super PAC ended the year with $14 million in cash on hand, the filings show.

DeSantis entered the first months of the presidential race last year with much hype and formidable fundraising numbers, beginning at $20 million during the second quarter but then dropping to $11 million during the third quarter — a time when he spent almost as much as he raised.

The latest filings posted Wednesday for DeSantis’ campaign — separate from the super PAC — also detail spending, showing $833,382 on travel, nearly as much as the $865,091 it spent on payroll for campaign employees. The governor is known to use private jets for travel, though his campaign report shows the travel spending mainly encompassed hotels, commercial flights and car rentals. It also spent a bulk of its funds — $2 million — to place ads.

Private jet travel was among the outsourced services to Never Back Down, The New York Times previously reported. The Wednesday filings for the flights are imprecise, but show an estimated $3.5 million of the super PAC’s spending last quarter went toward transportation, including on Tampa-based events company Elan Event Studios for “transportation management service” and to business travel company TMFB Management Services.

TMFB Management owner Craig Mateer contributed to DeSantis’ presidential campaign, and his company is also listed under “travel” in DeSantis’ campaign spending documents.

The DeSantis campaign didn’t comment on the filings and a representative for Never Back Down did not immediately return a request for comment.

DeSantis’ leadership PAC, Great American Comeback, donated to several members of Congress who supported his presidential run. Among the payouts was $6,600 to the committee for GOP Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, who often traveled with DeSantis on the campaign trail in Iowa and acted as a surrogate before the media. The PAC gave the same amount to U.S. Rep. Laurel Lee, the only member of the Florida GOP congressional delegation to have endorsed DeSantis. Another $5,000 went to the committee for Republican Rep. Bob Good of Virginia, who endorsed DeSantis weeks before he made his presidential race official.

The filings also revealed the extent to which DeSantis’ leadership fund and Never Back Down shifted resources toward a new PAC focused on advertising. The PAC, Fight Right, brought in $13 million, much of which came from moving funds from Never Back Down and Great American Comeback PAC. Other donors were developer Jay Odom, who was indicted in 2013 over a straw donation scheme supporting 2008 candidate Mike Huckabee’s presidential campaign, as well as Hugh Culverhouse Jr., a prominent attorney whose father owned the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Fight Right ran an ad in Iowa that featured Florida first lady Casey DeSantis sharing how her husband supported her when she was undergoing treatment for breast cancer.

DeSantis endorsed Trump after he dropped out of the race, saying he didn’t see a way to win the GOP nomination. Trump reported raising more than $19 million last quarter but spent $24 million.

Among the difficulties for DeSantis’ presidential bid were that big donors maxed out contributions early, and a significant portion of the funds couldn’t be used until the general election. DeSantis ended the year with $9.7 million cash on hand, much of which couldn’t be used during the primary.