Paul Renner is burning through cash; is this his last stand?

Former House Speaker Paul Renner appears to be laying all his cards on the table as he battles for relevance in a Governor’s race that increasingly looks like U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds’ for the taking.

As of the end of December, campaign finance records filed with the Division of Elections show Renner with about $4.6 million on hand in his affiliated political committee, Friends of Paul Renner. But since then, daily committee expenditure reports available on his committee website show Renner dropped another $1.75 million, leaving his committee with about $2.9 million on hand.

Compare that to Donalds’ finances. At the end of 2025, Donalds had more than $35 million on hand in his committee, Friends of Byron Donalds, with 2026 expenditures also well exceeding $1 million. That still leaves him with more than $30 million more on hand than Renner.

And that’s not counting cash available in the candidates’ official campaign accounts, where Donalds entered 2026 with about $4.3 million, compared to Renner holding less than $100,000.

While expenditures for the candidates in the first two and a half months of the year are on par, the percentage of overall spending compared to fundraising is not, hinting that Renner may be operating on a “go big or go home” approach.

His largest expenditure this year, according to records, is $1.4 million dropped on Monday to One on One Communications in Miami for media production and placement.

Last week he spent $22,500 on research, through Look Ahead Strategies in Virginia.

The week before that, the committee cut a $32,000 check to The Front Line Agency in Tallahassee for digital advertising.

In late January, Renner’s committee spent nearly $60,000 on consulting services from The Front Line Agency. Another large expense came in early January, with more than $121,000 paid to One on One Communications for media placement.

Donalds and Renner, of course, are not the only candidates vying for Florida’s top political job. Lt. Gov. Jay Collins is also running, as is conservative firebrand James Fishback, whose campaign strategy seems entirely pinned on owning the libs.

The lopsided funding echoes polling that shows this being Donalds’ race to lose. A late February poll from President Donald Trump pollster Ryan Tyson shows Donalds with a 40-point lead among the GOP Primary field.

Any candidate emerging from the Republican Primary will face a Democrat, but even there Donalds is the clear front-runner.

A University of North Florida Public Opinion Research Lab poll showed Donalds leading former U.S. Rep. David Jolly 42% to 36%. Donalds also leads Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings by a statistically identical 43% to 36%. Even Republicans who don’t support Donalds in the Primary say in that poll that they would get behind him in the General Election if he’s the GOP nominee, with only a single-digit share of Republican voters backing either Demings or Jolly.

The writing on the wall is clear: With the GOP Primary just five months away, it seems clear Team Renner is making the calculation that spending now is critical to gain momentum. While that risks tapping campaign coffers later, there likely won’t be a “later” without significant investment now.

But with Donalds carrying Trump’s coveted “complete and total endorsement,” it seems unlikely any candidate could break through at this point, barring any major political fallout. It may be that Renner’s campaign sees a window to claw back support among Donalds supporters as Trump’s war with Iran continues in its second week and drives gas prices ever higher.

Still, this is why we follow the money. It always tells a story, and this one smacks of a last-ditch effort.