The anti-Trump Republican Governor’s Association spent the 2022 election cycle helping Florida’s Ron DeSantis build a massive war chest for use in future campaigns, while hanging conservatives like Doug Mastriano, in Pennsylvania, out to dry and surrendering governorships to Democrats.
The Republican Governors Association (RGA) donated almost $21 million to the Friends of Ron DeSantis PAC, a massive war chest that politicos believe the Florida Governor will use to take on Trump in 2024, with the backing of the GOP establishment.
Over the year and a half that the RGA was dumping millions into the Friends of Ron DeSantis PAC, they gave zero dollars to Doug Mastriano, the Trump-endorsed Republican nominee for Governor of Pennsylvania, effectively surrendering the pivotal state to Democrats.
Despite the massive donations from the RGA, DeSantis didn’t need the money from a campaign standpoint, considering his seat is rated as one of the safest in the nation.
What’s more, is that the RGA’s counterpart, the Democratic Governors Association, spent a mere $52,000 in Florida in 2022, seeming to admit from the start that they didn’t stand a chance at winning.
That’s left conservatives wondering what the RGA was even fundraising for.
Thus far, the Friends of Ron DeSantis PAC has raised over $160 million, and the RGA is its biggest donor, contributing a sum of $20,950,000 from April of 2021 through November of 2022.
Seemingly, the GOP’s donor class is filling DeSantis’ campaign coffers for 2024.
That though, shouldn’t come as any surprise to supporters of President Trump, many of whom have grown cautious of Ron DeSantis and those surrounding him.
The GOP establishment and their donor class have been openly floating the idea of supplanting Trump with DeSantis, or even Glenn Youngkin, in 2024, with the likes of Paul Ryan popping up to show his support.
Within the RGA itself, much like at Kevin McCarthy’s FTX-backed Congressional Leadership Fund, Never Trump Republicanism is alive and well.
Just last month, Axios reported that former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie “received huge applause” at an annual RGA meeting, for bashing President Trump.
Despite establishment plans to torpedo the 45th President in 2024, Trump blows out DeSantis and Youngkin alike in numerous polls, and has reminded both men that it was his endorsement that gave them their political fortunes in the first place.
