DeSantis Is Relying on Big Donors

The Economist: “From May through June Mr DeSantis raised $20.1m and spent $7.9m, a burn rate of 39%. Compared with the same period during the 2020 election cycle, this seems modest. During the second quarter of 2019, Mr Trump’s campaign had a burn rate of 40%, and then-front-runners of the Democratic primaries Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden both slightly exceeded 50%.”

“But those fundraising juggernauts, unlike Mr DeSantis, relied heavily on small-dollar donors—individuals who pledge less than $200 to a campaign. These contributions matter not only because they help line campaign coffers, but because smaller donations from more people suggest greater enthusiasm for the candidate. During the second quarter of 2019, 70% of Mr Sanders’s fundraising came from small-dollar donors compared with Mr DeSantis’s 14% during the same period this year.”

“A reliance on big-dollar donors can be hard to sustain. Fewer people have lots of money to give and campaign-finance law caps individual contributions at $3,300 per candidate per election. Nearly 70% of donors to the DeSantis campaign have already reached this limit for the primaries.”