Top Republican donor Thomas Peterffy is halting plans to help finance the US presidential bid of Florida governor Ron DeSantis due to his extreme positions on social issues.
“I have put myself on hold,” the billionaire told the Financial Times.
“Because of his stance on abortion and book banning . . . myself, and a bunch of friends, are holding our powder dry.”
Though DeSantis has not formally announced a run, he has for months been considered former president Donald Trump’s main rival for the Republican nomination for president in 2024.
But in recent weeks, the Florida governor’s popularity among likely voters has wobbled as he has tried to appeal to Trump’s far-right voter base while also presenting himself as an opponent with broader appeal.
DeSantis has aimed to ban books dealing with sexual and LGBTQ themes from Florida schools and supported a ban on abortions after six weeks in the state.
Peterffy said he no longer believed that DeSantis had the same odds to unseat Trump in the Republican primary than he did at the start of the year. “DeSantis seems to have lost some momentum.”
Peterffy, who founded digital trading platform Interactive Brokers, has long been a top Republican donor. In 2022, he gave $7.7mn to individual Republicans’ campaigns and to conservative political action committees, up from $7.2mn in 2020, according to OpenSecrets campaign finance data.
In January, Peterffy told the FT that he was a fan of DeSantis and was “looking forward” to backing a presidential bid by the governor.
But now, he says: “I am more reluctant to back him. We are waiting to see who among the primary candidates is most likely to be able to win the general, and then put all of our firepower behind them.”
Until recently, Peterffy was the richest man in Florida with an estimated net worth of $26bn, according to Forbes. The title now belongs to Citadel founder Ken Griffin, worth $35bn, who relocated from Chicago to Florida last year for tax reasons. In 2022, Griffin donated $73mn to conservative campaigns, the most of any contributor, according to OpenSecrets.
Peterffy noted that he still supported the governor in his approach to business, including his battle with Disney. The company has gone head to head with the governor over Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which restricts speech about gender and sexuality in schools.
“I think it’s insane that a company would take a stand on gender issues,” he said.
But if DeSantis continues to appeal to a far-right base of the Republican party to defeat Trump by banning books and restricting abortion access, “the Republicans have a very big problem”.