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Welcome to Tuesday and the month of August. There have been some significant developments overnight regarding the finances of Never Back Down, the super PAC affiliated with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The PAC has reported its finances, revealing the donors and expenditures. As expected, many of the high-dollar donors are businesspeople based in Florida. Notably, Jay Odom, a developer from Destin, contributed $400,000 to the PAC, and other prominent donors included Faithful & Strong, Stefan Brodie, Bob Bishop, Aubrey Edge, and Norman Braman. Never Back Down is largely funded by a small circle of wealthy individuals, with the biggest single donor being Robert Bigelow, who gave $20 million. Super PACs can raise unlimited amounts of cash but are prohibited from coordinating with official campaigns, although there is some ambiguity in this regard. Governor DeSantis is currently on a bus tour funded by Never Back Down, and he has a campaign stop in Concord, N.H. Today, DeSantis submitted a document of his personal finances to the Federal Election Commission, but it lacks specifics and is less informative than the document he disclosed to Florida’s ethics commission in June. The document shows DeSantis’ income from a marketing agreement tied to his book, “The Courage to Be Free,” but there’s uncertainty about an advance mentioned for another book, “The Courage to Lead.” The document also reveals that Florida’s first lady, Casey DeSantis, does not have an investment fund and has not received any income or speaking fees in the last year. The disclosure shows that DeSantis has paid down his student loans but does not provide specific amounts. DeSantis’ economic plan, unveiled recently, includes easing the process for discharging student loans through bankruptcy, as he sympathizes with students who were misled by universities. DeSantis’ latest comments on abortion have drawn criticism from anti-abortion groups, and his campaign has been embroiled in controversy over meme videos produced by staff. In other news, the new defendant in the Trump documents case made their first court appearance but still needs a Florida attorney.
