Ron DeSantis amasses whopping $8.2M for a presidential campaign marred by glitches

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis managed to amass $8.2 million in the first 24 hours of his presidential campaign, despite the announcement being plagued by echoes and glitches at a Twitter Spaces live stream. Nonetheless, the whopping number surpasses the $6.3 million raised by Joe Biden when he launched his White House bid in 2019.  

Donations for DeSantis kept pouring in, even though the glitches dulled his highly-anticipated presidential candidate debut at the event with Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday. His announcement faced a delay of about 30 minutes. However, DeSantis was finally able to kick off his speech and exhort his supporters to help boost his campaign with contributions.

Just one hour after the big announcement, $1 million was raised online, according to DeSantis' presidential campaign spokesperson Bryan Griffin. “There was so much enthusiasm for Governor DeSantis’ vision for our Great American Comeback that he literally busted up the internet. Washington is next,” Griffin wrote on Twitter.

“I’m running for president of the United States to lead our great American comeback. We announced that on Twitter Spaces earlier tonight and it broke the internet because so many people were excited about being on that Twitter Space. Now let’s see if we can break WinRed,” he said, referring to the GOP's fundraising platform. 

Trump-supporting super PAC bashes DeSantis 

Not everyone believed the big numbers, Trump-supporting super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. labelled the campaign "botched," adding that "no amount of money" will be able to revive a "dead" campaign. “After a three-month long shadow campaign, including a legislative session that clearly leveraged Florida taxpayer money to elevate his fundraising efforts, DeSantis was still not able to raise enough money to make up for his botched campaign launch. His record of targeting senior benefits, wanting to raise taxes, and withholding funding for the border wall makes this campaign dead on arrival. No amount of money will change that,” MAGA spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer said in a statement.