It cost Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis more than $160 million to come in second place in one nomination race.
This staggering sum makes DeSantis’ unsuccessful presidential bid the most expensive Republican primary in modern times. But the details of where the money went, laid out in a filing Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission, show how freely Mr. DeSantis and his allied super PACs were spending it.
They channeled at least $53 million through companies controlled or owned by Jeff Roe, a powerful Republican strategist who served as a top adviser to Mr. DeSantis’ main super PAC, Never Back Down.
They spent $31.3 million on TV ad time.
They spent at least $3.3 million on commercial airfare during the campaign and into Never Back Down.
And they contributed about $110,000 to the campaigns of state and federal elected officials who supported Mr. DeSantis.
All because of 23,420 votes in Iowa.
The bulk of the funding, $130 million, was spent by Never Back Down. The super PAC was supposed to be DeSantis’ secret weapon in his bid to defeat former President Donald J. Trump through an ambitious recruiting campaign that included knocking on the door of DeSantis supporters five times. His campaign spent another $28 million.
The costly effort yielded negligible results, and Mr. DeSantis withdrew before the New Hampshire primary and decided to support Mr. Trump. But it tested the limits of campaign finance law.
Never Back Down played an unprecedented role in managing DeSantis’ campaign, even though campaigns and super PACs are not allowed to coordinate strategy. Mr. DeSantis has turned over many tasks traditionally overseen by campaign officials to outside groups, such as arranging events and organizing voting efforts.
The awkward arrangement left key decisions in the hands of super PAC leaders rather than Mr. DeSantis’ close and trusted group of advisers. Tensions between Never Back Down and the campaign led to a flurry of negative news that cast a shadow on DeSantis’ candidacy, especially among wealthy donors.
Representatives for the DeSantis campaign and Never Back Down did not respond to requests for comment. Neither did Mr. Law.
DeSantis was not the only Republican candidate to drop out after spending huge sums of money this season. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott entered the race with $22 million in campaign funds inherited from his 2022 re-election campaign. Within weeks, a super PAC supporting him collected another $20 million of his money.
But by the fall, enthusiasm for Scott’s candidacy had waned and fundraising was drying up, new federal filings show. His group spent a lot of money, totaling more than $30 million on campaigns, and super PACs took out his $21.8 million, including about $15 million in advertising.
Details of his spending are difficult to ascertain. That’s because most of the money went to two limited liability companies with no other notable operations, based in suburban Staples stores.
In the end, Scott didn’t even make it to Iowa State and dropped out in November.
Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy poured $25.6 million of his own money into his campaign in loans and donations before leaving the race after finishing fourth in Iowa. At the end of December, his campaign had $1.5 million remaining. A super PAC supporting him raised $8.7 million and spent almost all of it.
North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, a wealthy businessman, loaned his campaign $14.8 million. By the time he left the race in December, his campaign had spent $17.8 million. The super PAC supporting him has raised $24.1 million and spent $24 million.
But Mr. DeSantis’ bid and its debacle are notable for their scale. Other than Trump, no other candidate has entered the race with more funding, more publicity, or higher polling numbers.
By the time Mr. DeSantis ran for office in late May, Never Back Down’s war chest had reached nearly $120 million, including more than $80 million left over from Mr. DeSantis’ re-election as governor of Florida. It was included. In his first six weeks as a candidate, his campaign raised more than $20 million. (Unlike political campaigns, super PACs can receive unlimited funds from donors, making them a way for the ultra-wealthy to support candidates.)
Never Back Down is part of an effort to mobilize voters across the country, including a massive voter outreach effort deploying paid door knockers to reach likely DeSantis voters in early nomination states. Planned a billion dollar ground war. The group has pledged to raise $200 million.
Warning signs were immediate.
Mr. DeSantis insisted on flying in a private plane, a habit picked up during his time in Tallahassee and an unsustainable habit for a candidate who is not independently wealthy.
The campaign spent beyond its means in the first few weeks, and in July there were personnel changes and significant layoffs. Never Back Down, which also provided a large sum of money, picked up much of the surplus, including paying for Mr. DeSantis’ airline tickets, records show.
Mr. Roe has been a central figure in Mr. DeSantis’ candidacy, and the vast sums of money flowing into his company reflect his ambition to run the nation’s largest political consulting firm. At times, he brought unfavorable publicity to the campaign and was the subject of ridicule from Trump’s agents. He left the super PAC in December as the group collapsed in turmoil.
Never Back Down also secretly transferred some of the funds, $2.75 million, to Win It Back, a super PAC backed by the Club for Growth, an influential conservative anti-tax group. Around the same time, Win It Back ran a series of anti-Trump ads. The donations were not disclosed until after DeSantis resigned.
Mr. DeSantis took a tough stance on Mr. Trump for much of the campaign, but the latest donation shows how super PACs can be used to do a candidate’s dirty work without leaving too many fingerprints. Ta.
Win-It-Back ultimately pulled the ad and announced it had proven unpopular with Republican voters, a sign of the apparent futility of challenging Trump in the Republican primary. It’s an expression.
Meanwhile, Mr. DeSantis’ separate committee was used to express apparent gratitude to several politicians who supported Mr. DeSantis at the risk of incurring Mr. Trump’s wrath. The group Great American Comeback has donated more than $110,000 to these officials, including $6,600 to Texas Rep. Chip Roy, who ran afoul of Mr. DeSantis in the final weeks of the campaign. . More than a dozen Iowa congressmen also received donations.
During this time, Mr. DeSantis’ fundraising slowed as his poll numbers plummeted, coupled with a period of uncertainty as a candidate. Mr. DeSantis began his campaign as the darling of many conservative donors who wanted to move on from Mr. Trump, but the Florida governor’s support largely came from first Ms. Scott and then from the southern state’s Nikki Haley. I watched it leak to the former governor. Carolina remains in the contest.
The funds raised by Mr. DeSantis’ campaign continued to decline each quarter of 2023. Never Back Down raised just $14.5 million in the second half of this year.
DeSantis’ allies have also stepped up to help, launching their own super PAC seeded with money from Never Back Down. The formation of new groups “Fight Right” and “Good Fight” caused tension in Never Back Down, and many executives resigned or were fired.
“Fight Right” and “The Good Fight” took over the TV ads, while “Never Back Down” focused on turnout efforts, a move publicly encouraged by the DeSantis campaign.
Two new super PACs spent $13.8 million on TV ads in Iowa. Much of their money came from Never Back Down and the Great American Comeback, but some of it came from CDR, primarily wealthy Floridians loyal to Mr. DeSantis and major state contractors. It came from donors like Enterprise.
By the end of 2023, Never Back Down has spent all of the $120 million that DeSantis had in his coffers when he began his candidacy, and then some.
Three weeks later, DeSantis withdrew from the race.
Rachel Shorey and andrew fisher Contributed to the report.