DeSantis Campaign Raises $1 Million Online After Presidential Campaign Launch

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ fledgling presidential campaign raised roughly $1 million online in the hour after he announced his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, the campaign said Wednesday.

“There was so much enthusiasm for Gov. DeSantis' vision for our Great American Comeback that he literally busted up the internet. Washington is next,” DeSantis’ press secretary Bryan Griffin said in a Twitter post. “$1 million raised online in one hour … and counting!”

DeSantis’ campaign website was only a vector for fundraising Wednesday evening after the governor’s at-times stumbling campaign rollout that included a glitchy, audio-only discussion on Twitter with the company’s CEO Elon Musk; U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky; and other supporters.

A spokesperson for WinRed, the Republican Party’s online fundraising portal through which DeSantis’ campaign is raising money, did not immediately respond to a request to confirm the number Griffin quoted.

DeSantis joins a field for the Republican nomination that also includes former President Donald Trump, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former United Nations Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and former radio personality and 2021 California gubernatorial recall candidate Larry Elder.