Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis arrives to kick off the campaign for the 2024 Republican US presidential candidate during an evening election rally at the Evangelical Eternity Church in West Des Moines, Iowa, USA, May 30, 2023 .
Scott Morgan | Reuters
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is in New York for a private presidential fundraiser that will be hosted by at least four Wall Street executives, one of whom is a liberal billionaire. It also includes people who have been associated with George Soros-backed companies in the past and are often targeted by Mr. DeSantis. other Republicans.
According to a copy of the invitation obtained by CNBC, the event is scheduled to take place on June 29 at the swanky Yale Club. It will be one of the first fundraisers in the Big Apple since DeSantis officially launched his presidential campaign last month.
It also comes shortly after 2024 Republican primary frontrunner Donald Trump was indicted on dozens of charges in the Manhattan state and Miami federal cases.
New York is a good place to raise money for both parties. Donors in the New York metropolitan area gave more than $680 million to their preferred political candidates during the 2022 election, according to data from the bipartisan OpenSecret.
Hosts named in DeSantis’ invitation include Paul Ardaia, a partner at Goldentree Asset Management, and leader of Kinderhook Industries, a private equity firm with at least $5 billion in assets under management. Christian Michalik, Rob Michalik and Corwin Carruthers. , according to PitchBook data. GoldenTree has at least $50 billion in assets under management, according to PitchBook.
Shortly after the article’s publication, Aldir called CNBC and said he was added to the rally’s list of organizers by “mistake.” CNBC confirmed that it listed him as a co-host in two separate invitations to the event.
“I think it was a misunderstanding,” Aldir said. “I said, ‘I might be able to attend the event,'” he added. Ardire said he will not attend the event and will not endorse DeSantis for president because GoldenTree does not allow partners to endorse state officials for president. DeSantis is still governor of Florida, and GoldenTree has offices in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Co-organizers must raise $50,000 and lunch attendees must donate $6,600 to participate in the DeSantis fundraiser, according to the invitation. The maximum amount a donor can donate will be split evenly between the main campaign account and the general account. election account.
Old connection with Soros
According to Michalik’s corporate biography of Kinderhook, one of the hosts, Michalik, was a partner at Soros Private Equity Partners, a leveraged buyout fund backed by George Soros. website.
Before founding Kinderhook, he was a partner at Kinderhook from 1999 to 2003, according to his LinkedIn page.Soros Private Equity Firm, a division of Soros Fund Management, was formerly organized as a hedge fund and is now tidy as a family office. In 2001, Mishalik was appointed to the board of Texas-based RLX Technologies after the Soros Foundation invested $40 million in the company. According to the Houston Chronicle.
According to OpenSecret data, Mr. Mishalik has made sporadic donations to Republican officials. One of his largest donations was to the Florida Republican Party in 2006 when he made $10,000. During the 2022 election, Mishalik donated $5,800 to Republican Jesse Rising, who lost the primary for the Illinois House of Representatives seat.
Mr. DeSantis has his sights set on a candidate funded by Mr. Soros, a major Democratic donor. “Florida recognizes the threat posed by left-wing prosecutors, who are usually elected with big campaign funds from someone like George Soros,” he said during a campaign campaign earlier this month.
Mr. Soros has also been regularly targeted by other Republicans.
In a statement to CNBC, DeSantis’ spokesman Brian Griffin said, “Governor DeSantis has received widespread support, including from Disney expats and former Soros employees who reject the awakened people and respect law and order. We are happy to use and oppose any donation.” Soros’ agenda benefits the American people. ”
(DeSantis and disney The two companies have been embroiled in a feud since last year when they took a stand against a classroom law that critics called “don’t say you’re gay.”)
A campaign spokesperson pointed to Mr. DeSantis’ comments in a recent interview, saying, “Someone is donating to the campaign, should you lay down for them? is not how I do it. People are free to support me or not support me. I’m calling.” If you’ve stood by me and you’re wrong, I’m going to do the right thing. ”
Mishalik did not immediately comment to CNBC.
Earlier this year, Soros Said Billionaire may be forced to run for the former president as a third-party candidate as he hopes the Republican presidential primary will end with Trump and DeSantis as he speaks at the Munich Security Conference said there is
Lack of support?
Another co-organizer is Robert Jufra, a longtime DeSantis ally and co-chairman of law giant Sullivan & Cromwell, according to the invitation.
Since the 2016 election period, Jufra is the only co-organizer of an event with six-figure donations to the Republican cause, according to campaign finance records.
A Republican strategist familiar with the event said the relative lack of donations from other organizers suggests there may be a lack of interest from some large Republican donors in the business community in helping DeSantis. It is said that The person declined to name him out of fear of retaliation from DeSantis and his team.
The strategist said the host team lineup was surprisingly lackluster, with only Jufra standing out.
Steve Schwartzman, CEO of private equity giant Blackstone and a veteran Republican mega-donor, is reportedly withholding support for DeSantis after meeting with the governor of Florida. ing. according to to Bloomberg. Still, despite the lack of support from Schwartzman and others, DeSantis raised more than $8 million in the first 24 hours of the campaign.
Mr. Jufra did not respond to a request for comment.
DeSantis and the co-organizers of the event are all graduates of Yale University, so they have ties to the fundraising venue. According to the Yale Club website, membership is open only to people who have earned a degree from an Ivy League school or “full-time graduate students and full-time professors who have completed a degree-granting program at Yale University.” It says.
Mr. DeSantis graduated from Yale University in 2001. In his book, published just before he ran for president, DeSantis said he thought getting a degree from Yale would be like: to be The political “scarlet letter” in the Republican primary.
“I’m one of the few people who went through both Yale and Harvard law schools and became more conservative than when I got there,” DeSantis writes in his book. “If I can survive seven years of Ivy League brainwashing, I will survive in Washington D.C. without becoming a native.”
