Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis may be intentionally hindering the GOP’s efforts to raise funds for August’s Republican National Convention in the state.
The New York Times reported Thursday that DeSantis has directed his top fundraiser, Heather Barker, to tell donors not to make contributions to the forthcoming convention in Jacksonville. DeSantis has allegedly done so because of a personal dispute between him and his former campaign manager Susie Wiles.
Wiles, an experienced Republican operative, ran DeSantis’s 2018 campaign for governor. She also led President Trump’s Florida team in 2016 and was brought back to assist his 2020 campaign. In September, Wiles was accused of leaking an internal memo from DeSantis’s political action committee, which suggested he was selling special access to lobbyists. DeSantis reportedly had a hand in her ouster from the Trump campaign following the controversy.
Wiles rejoined the president’s reelection campaign as an unpaid adviser last week amid mounting concerns about how Trump will perform in Florida this November. She has been informally assisting the convention planners.
According to the New York Times, Barker has been clear with donors that DeSantis is not helping the fundraising efforts because of Wiles’s involvement. Barker, however, flatly denied the allegations.
“We are encouraging all people to participate, and we hope it’s a success for the president,” she said. “We just hope everything is a success and want it to be, however they want to structure things and put things together.”
Those involved in the fundraising process indicated that most of those contributing to the convention are national donors, rather than Florida donors, and that DeSantis’s lack of assistance hasn’t had a major impact on raising money.
