After financier Thomas Peterffy said he had put donations to the Florida governor "on hold," another billionaire, John Catsimatidis, has pulled his funding.
Ron DeSantis has lost a second donor in two weeks after a New York-based billionaire who supported Donald Trump in his 2020 presidential bid ruled out supporting the Florida governor in any potential run for the White House.
In an interview on Wednesday, John Catsimatidis—a supermarket and property magnate with an estimated $4.1 billion fortune—claimed he was pulling any future funding of the Republican over a lack of access. "Why would I support somebody to become president of the United States that doesn't return phone calls?" he told the Washington Examiner.
This news came after major GOP donor Thomas Peterffy—a financier and the 65th richest man in the world with a net worth of $25 billion—said he had put donations to DeSantis "on hold" over his stance on abortion and book banning. While DeSantis has yet to declare his candidacy, he is widely seen as a potential leading contender for the 2024 presidential Republican primaries.
Catsimatidis, a talk show host who also ran for the Republican nomination for mayor of New York City in 2013, reportedly donated $15,000 to DeSantis's campaign for Florida governor in 2018. Federal Election Commission filings show in March, he and his wife also donated a total of $13,200 to Rick Scott, a GOP Florida senator and DeSantis's predecessor as governor.
"Why do people contribute to people?" Catsimatidis said on Wednesday. "They want to have access and to be able to have a discussion. I have never in 30 years of doing politics asked anybody for anything or a personal favor. Never."
He claimed to the Washington Examiner that there were "plenty" of people in Florida who were supportive of DeSantis that shared "the same feelings" as him, suggesting more donors may pull back their funding.
Newsweek approached DeSantis's office via email on Thursday for comment.
As well as donating a total of $250,000 to Trump Victory in September 2020, the Catsimatidises have supported several Trump allies, including Senator J. D. Vance, Representative Matt Gaetz and Mehmet Oz, who unsuccessfully ran for Pennsylvania senator in the 2022 Midterms. They have also donated to several Democrat campaign funds.
On April 15, Peterffy told the Financial Times that he had suspended donations to DeSantis "because of his stance on abortion and book banning." He added that "myself, and a bunch of friends, are holding our powder dry."
Peterffy said of he and his wealthy GOP backer friends that they saw DeSantis as having lost momentum in the polls when it came to knocking Trump—the only major candidate to have declared in the Republican field—off his spot as the likely nominee.
"We are waiting to see who among the primary candidates is most likely to be able to win the general, and then put all of our firepower behind them," he said.
The Hungarian-born businessman noted DeSantis's recent moves to ban books from schools that address sex and LGBTQ+ issues, and ban most abortions six weeks into pregnancy as reasons for his decision. A nationwide debate was reignited in 2022 after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, allowing individual states to legislate on the issue.
While DeSantis's legislative pushes and rhetoric may appeal to the conservative wing of the Republican Party, political scientists have warned that such candidates risk alienating moderate voters. With Joe Biden announcing his candidacy for re-election on Tuesday, independents may side with the incumbent again if the GOP lurches to the right.