‘Democrats have failed’: Crist fundraising lags despite DeSantis matchup

Few Republican politicians elicit as much anger from Democrats as Gov. Ron DeSantis.

But the animus they feel toward Florida’s incumbent governor hasn’t translated into big contributions for his Democratic opponent, Charlie Crist.

The state’s Democratic gubernatorial nominee has struggled to raise the kind of big money necessary to compete in this year’s race against DeSantis, according to a review of campaign finance records, collecting less cash than some of the state’s previous nominees for governor, Democratic gubernatorial candidates in other states, and even the state’s U.S. Senate nominee this year, Val Demings.

The shortfall has been a surprise to some Democrats, who had assumed that DeSantis’ presence on the ballot would motivate the party’s national donor base to contribute early and often — particularly the massive army of online small-dollar donors who have routinely helped an array of Democratic candidates smash fundraising records in recent elections.

And it’s concerned other party operatives that Democrats missed a chance to compete against a politician widely viewed as a 2024 presidential contender.

“Democrats have failed very much to send a warning signal to Washington and the rest of the country,” said Nancy Texiera, a Democratic strategist in Florida. ”We are going to be a canary in the coal mine.”

The disappointment among Democrats about Crist’s fundraising is setting in ahead of President Joe Biden’s visit to South Florida on Tuesday, where the Democratic leader is expected to help raise money for the gubernatorial nominee and appear at a rally supporting his candidacy. It’s one of the rare moments Crist has received national attention for his campaign, Democrats say, but might come too late in the race in which many voters have already cast a ballot in the state.

Crist’s fundraising has put him at a severe disadvantage with DeSantis, who has collected roughly $200 million in contributions and used the financial edge to relentlessly promote his reelection campaign with TV ads.

In a statement, a Crist spokeswoman defended the campaign’s fundraising, pointing to a donor list that includes more than 430,000 people as proof of his broad appeal to voters.

“Floridians are rallying behind Charlie’s campaign to build a state that works for all,” said Samantha Ramirez, the campaign’s communications director. “Our early investment to build a digital infrastructure that would organize and raise funds to defeat Ron DeSantis, combined with Charlie’s unique message, has resulted in millions raised from an incredible 431,341 donations.”

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Small-dollar donors and billionaires

Crist, through his campaign account and PAC, has raised about $31 million through the end of last week, according to the Florida Division of Elections.

The fundraising haul is still among the highest for Democratic gubernatorial candidates in 2022, surpassing party nominees in battleground states like Arizona, Nevada and Wisconsin. And the campaign has seen small surges in donations in key moments of the race, according to campaign officials, including collecting about $600,000 in the days following last week’s debate with DeSantis.

Florida Democrats have also complained about a deeper lack of interest in the state from big Democratic donors and political groups this election cycle, a financial power outage that has seen them turn away from the state’s U.S. Senate contest, a host of statewide down-ballot races, and even on-the-ground voter organizing efforts from grassroots groups.

Crist’s fundraising trails previous Democratic gubernatorial nominee Andrew Gillum, who raised about $53 million during his 2018 bid for office, a race that also pit him against DeSantis. That year, Gillum had the financial backing of Democratic heavyweight donors like former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former presidential candidate Tom Steyer.

Crist also has raised less than other high-profile Democratic gubernatorial candidates this election cycle, including Stacey Abrams, who has raised at least $85 million so far.

And he’s raised far less than his statewide Democratic companion on the ballot, Demings, who has collected $73 million in her campaign, according to documents filed with the Federal Election Commission.

And even despite running against DeSantis, he also trails Demings among small-dollar donors: Demings has raised $38 million from contributions under $200, according to a review of campaign finance records, while Crist has raised $5 million.

Some Democratic strategists blamed the state’s late primary in August for Crist’s shortfall, particularly because he faced a competitive race until then against Democratic Commissioner of Agriculture Nikki Fried. He’s been able to raise money as the party’s nominee for less than three months, they say, and even then his fundraising efforts were likely slowed by Hurricane Ian’s landfall in late September.

“With the primary that late, you only get a couple of months to scale up as the nominee,” said Natt Binns, a Democratic digital strategist. “And September was a pretty tough time to do that.”

Raising money through small, online donations has become a key part of many Democratic candidates’ strategy, even in long-shot races where the party’s big-dollar donors are less interested in contributing. In one case, former Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in South Carolina, Jaime Harrison, raised $132 million in his long-shot race against Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham in 2020.

Crist made overt attempts to court those donors, releasing a video shortly after the primary in which it equated defeating DeSantis with defeating fascism. He also gave national interviews in which he explicitly framed his campaign as a chance to stop DeSantis’ national ambitions.

“It is the Democrats’ last chance to stop him,” Crist said on CNN in August. “And it’s going to be a lot cheaper to do it in Florida than it would be to do it in 50 states. So let’s do it now. Let’s stop this thing.”

Democratic strategists say, however, that state level races are harder to raise national money for, even when your opponent is DeSantis.

“There’s always been, in grassroots fundraising, an advantage that the federal candidates have over the gubernatorial candidates,” Binns said. “The federal candidates have an appeal to everyone in the country that they feel is relevant to them.”