According to the latest Republican primary polls for president, Ron DeSantis is trending negatively. He went from having a 30% voting intention in January to 15.7 % at the beginning of August, crossing out the days for the debate. In this context, one of his largest donors has cried out and demanded more moderation from his candidate, at the risk of momentarily cutting off funding.
He is Robert Bigelow, founder of Budget Suites of America and Bigelow Aerospace, who recently spoke to Reuters to express his dissatisfaction with the current situation of the Florida governor. The tycoon contributed a lot of money during the 2022 midterm elections, in which he helped the now-candidate with $10 million to his successful re-election bid. In addition, he donated another $25 million to groups that supported Joe Lombardo's campaign for governor of Nevada.
So far, he has sent $20 million to Never Back Down, the super PAC that supports the former congressman and is headed by Ken Cuccinelli, former Virginia attorney general.
The businessman indicated in the aforementioned interview that DeSantis needs to change his campaign platform if he wants to keep the Republican nomination for president. "He will lose if he doesn't. Extremism is not going to get you elected," he expressed.
He further stated that he was going to stop his contributions until he sees that the GOP "can generate more on its own." "I'm already too big a percentage. Many of his donors are still undecided," Bigelow added.
When consulted by Reuters about the reasons that led him to make this decision, the tycoon pointed to the "extreme positions" that the governor holds on some issues, such as the ban on abortion after six weeks that he enacted in April of this year.
Funding pause and criticism of his candidate's rhetoric aside, Bigelow has no doubts about who to support in the race to 2024. "The best guy for the country," he said of DeSantis.
