Tallahassee, Florida.-The political operation of the governor of Florida Ron Desantis is making calls to the state lobbyists, urging them not to support the representative Byron Donalds, R-Fla., whose offer of 2026 for governor has already accumulated more than $ 3 million, much of which come from the donors of President Donald Trump.
The calls, according to seven people familiar with the effort requested by anonymity to speak freely, are attempts to stop any possible contribution of the lobbyists mostly based in Tallahassee in the Donalds campaign.
The congressman of the southwest of Florida announced his offer backed by Trump for the governor last month, but there is still the possibility that Desantis’s wife, Casey, also jump to the race, which would establish a primary of the Republican Heavyweight Party and continue the long political war between Trump and Desantis.
“They are becoming much more aggressive as this progresses,” said a veteran Republican lobbyist who received one of the calls. “There are no threats or anything direct like that, but come on.
The calls arrive when Florida is in three weeks after their state legislative session, a time when the Labildos Desantis urges not to support Donalds that need the governor to sign the invoices in the law for their clients.
“There is a tension among many while trying to make the line, which indicates that they are with Donalds, as many will, without incurring the anger of Desantis,” said another Republican lobbyist from Florida for a long time.
“A term that we continue listening is’ maintain its dry dust,” said the person on how the request is framed not to donate to Donalds.
Both Desantis and Taryn Fenske, one of his main political employees, have made some of the calls, according to one of the family sources. Fenske did not return a request for comments.
Casey Desantis has not yet said if he plans to formally run for governor in 2026, but her husband has increasingly promoted her as a key part of her administration’s success, and has done nothing to publicly demolish the idea of a campaign when the reporters ask her about it.
“When you reach a fork on the road, Take it,” he said last month, borrowing a cryptic turn of the phrase of the Yogi Berra baseball legend.
NBC News reported last month that Casey was seriously considering a race to replace her husband. A spokeswoman for Desantis’s political operation did not return a request for comments.
Desantis in the past has been based on a pressure campaign of the lobbyists of Tallahassee to help finance their political ambitions. During the 2024 presidential contest, his former Chief of Cabinet James Uthmeier _, who is now the State Attorney General, organized government employees to request contributions for the Desantis campaign of the Cabildos, a very unusual agreement.
This time, there are no personnel funded by taxpayers involved in efforts.
Although supporters on both sides of the possible primary of the Republican party have aggressively attacked the other candidate in social networks, out of some early tension, none of the parties has really been addressed to the other. When asked, Donalds has praised the work that Desantis has done as governor.
Donalds has quickly accumulated a war chest at the state level of $ 3.1 million, reinforced for $ 1.2 million in transfers of his federal Congress account and some notable donors of the Trump fund collection network, according to public records. Illinois Richard Uihlein billionaire has contributed $ 1 million; Clive Fields, a Texas Headquarters -based Medical Care Executive who was donor of Desantis in the 2024 presidential primaries before supporting Trump, donated $ 500,000; and Deborah Magowan, the widow of the former owner of the San Francisco giants, Peter Magowan, kicked $ 150,000.
In addition, Donalds continues to have a separate federal Super called Sunshine State Future Fund, who has been relatively inactive, according to campaign financing records, but has not yet had to reveal any contribution this year.
Florida’s Electoral Law generally allows federal Super PAC to transfer money to benefit the political committees aligned by state candidates, which means that it can offer a more covert form for donors to give Donalds without the contribution becoming public immediately. The next deadline for the quarterly presentation of Super Pac is not until April 15.
Meanwhile, a political committee at the state level associated with the political operation of Desantis has $ 2.1 million in cash, according to state campaign financing records.
Donalds and Desantis were once nearby politicians, but they had a fight when Donalds backed Trump in the 2024 Republican presidential primaries.
Desantis has publicly framed the potential tries to his wife to replace him as a way to maintain and take advantage of his family’s legacy in the state governor’s mansion.
“She is someone who, I believe, the intestinal strength and dedication to conservative principles,” desantis told journalists last month of his wife. “Anything we have achieved, she could lead to the next level.”
