Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) paid a fee of $95,000 to attend and advertise at a religious forum last month in Iowa.
Family Leadership Summit was a gathering of 2,000 conservative evangelicals on July 14 that drew in other GOP candidates running for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination. The DeSantis campaign, a DeSantis-linked super PAC, and a nonprofit organization supporting him combined to pay the fee, which resulted in three pages of ads in a booklet distributed there, tickets to the summit, lunch, and an after-dinner event.
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Each page cost $25,000 according to FLS. Other GOP opponents including Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) paying for ads via their respective PACs. The after-dinner event cost $2,500 per plate and was open to individuals.
FLS CEO Bob Vander Plaats, 60, told Reuters that the fee is “not even close to exorbitant” for the chance to capture the eyeballs of whom he called “engaged grassroots activists.”
“My only regret is that we probably should have charged more,” he said.
A spokesman clarified to the Washington Examiner that “Bob’s point about ‘charging more’ is that the value was more than the $25,000 we charged.”
“FEC laws REQUIRE us to charge campaigns or PACs the same amount we charge private parties, otherwise it’s considered a ‘corporate contribution,’ so we did,” an FLS spokesman said. “The ONLY benefits the campaigns/PACs received were an ad in a booklet and tickets to a private event with hundreds of other private individuals. The ONLY benefits.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to the DeSantis campaign for comment.
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Vander Plaats has predicted the winners of the Iowa caucus by endorsing former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in the 2008 election, former Sen. Rick Santorum in 2012, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in 2016. The state boasts 28% of evangelical protestants, like those present at the forum, according to Pew Research Center.
Former President Donald Trump was notably missing from the event.
