With Ken Griffin’s help, Byron Donalds exceeds $103M raised in race for Governor

One of the biggest donors in the history of Florida politics is all in behind Byron Donalds‘ run for Governor.

As first reported by NBC News’ Matt Dixon, Citadel’s Ken Griffin contributed $10 million to the Friends of Byron Donalds PAC the week ending July 17, the vast majority of the nearly $11 million raised.

Griffin’s donation is obviously significant in terms of its amount, but it also carries a symbolic weight, given that the financier has a history of heavily backing candidates and causes in which he believes. He gave a super PAC supporting Sen. Ashley Moody $2.5 million this month, was a big backer of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ re-election campaign, and helped fund the defeat of 2024’s adult use marijuana amendment.

Donors that typically have backed DeSantis and his causes clearly haven’t needed a permission structure to support Donalds, a third-term Congressman from Naples who is the choice of President Donald Trump. But Griffin’s investment offers more proof that even without a formal endorsement from the Governor, the biggest stakeholders in the state are betting Donalds will continue what DeSantis is doing.

Donalds raised more than $103 million as of July 17, with more than $92 million of that going to the political committee and another $10 million plus going to his campaign account.

But beyond the sizable sums in play, his fundraising shows broad-based support, particularly on the campaign account level. During the week in question, Donalds had 1,433 donations totaling more than $440,000 to his official account. All told, he had nearly $70 million on hand as of July 17.

Opponents in the Republican Primary are not even coming close to matching the front-runner’s torrid pace, burning through reserves and raising very little, as if cognizant that they won’t have to worry about operations beyond Aug. 18.

DeSantis-appointed Lt. Gov. Jay Collins raised a little more than $75,000 between his campaign account and the Quiet Professionals FL political committee. The former Green Beret ended the week with roughly $900,000 to spend.

Former House Speaker Paul Renner raised nearly $40,000 during the week, leaving him roughly $1.5 million to spend as of Aug. 17 between his campaign account and Friends of Paul Renner.

James Fishback raised more than $113,000 between his Florida First PAC political committee and his campaign account, and the $106,000 in donations from George O’Neill and his wife Erica O’Neill that made up most of it is particularly interesting.

A great-grandson of John D. Rockefeller Jr. named George O’Neill Jr. of Lake Wales was revealed as one of the contacts of Maria Butina, who was convicted in 2018 of acting as a secret Russian foreign agent. He was named “U.S. Person 2” in court documents.

The Wall Street Journal reported O’Neill and Butina talked about hosting “friendship dinners” with Russian officials. O’Neill hosted such an event in February 2017.

According to court documents, Butina told O’Neill, who was not been accused of wrongdoing, that “all we need is yes from (Vladimir) Putin’s side. The rest is easier.”

The Journal described that conversation as “an apparent effort to relay approval from the Russian government of a U.S-Russian back channel through events like the dinner.”

We called and texted Fishback and called his political committee to get comment on why the donor was targeted in a Russian influence scheme, but response was not immediate.

Fishback’s campaign has been propped up disproportionately by a few big donors. While the O’Neills are new to the fold, this isn’t the first fundraising period where one party’s contributions made up the bulk of the take.

He had less than $200,000 to spend as of July 17.

Assuming Donalds is the nominee, he appears poised to have a substantial cash advantage against presumptive Democratic nominee David Jolly and his running mate Gwen Graham.

Jolly raised roughly $1.45 million between his campaign account and his Florida 2026 political committee during the week ending July 17, with all but a little more than $20,000 of that being hard money. More than 3,600 people gave his campaign money during the week, a sign of Democratic coalescence around the former Republican Congressman from Pinellas County.

He has raised more than $9 million this cycle between the accounts, and retained nearly $3.5 million as of July 17.

Though the financial disparity between Donalds and Jolly is profound, polling shows a tight race.

Donalds leads Jolly by just five points in a survey released this week from the the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab.

The survey tracks with an average of recent polls showing Donalds ahead by a similar margin, and again shows a race where the massive Republican registration advantage may not translate into an overwhelming win for the GOP.

The polling led one key national observer to upgrade Jolly’s chances of winning.

Larry Sabato, the well-regarded political analyst, sees Florida’s gubernatorial race as a “likely” Republican win, which is better for Democratic purposes than the “safe” designation it previously had.

Sabato’s Crystal Ball sees Donalds calling for debates with Jolly as proof that his campaign senses pressure, since “candidates who are comfortably ahead are not usually the ones pressing for debates.”