Ron DeSantis accumulates $8.2m for his campaign in just 24 hours following launch setback.

The amount raised by DeSantis is more than what President Joe Biden had raised in his first 24 hours as a candidate in 2019, which was $6.3 million. Additionally, it’s more than the $6.1 million former representative Beto O’Rourke raised in the same year. Furthermore, it is more than double the $4 million raised by Donald Trump’s campaign in the 24 hours after his criminal indictment this year.

Reportedly, DeSantis supporters had gathered at the Four Seasons hotel in Miami’s Brickell financial district to raise funds for the upcoming campaign. Participants engaged in “dialing for dollars” and received merchandise like baseball hats, pens, and stress squeeze balls, according to the Business Insider. Griffin stated that the campaign was raising funds for both the primary and general elections, and the campaign can raise $3,300 per donor for both the primary and general election.

However, he didn’t specify how much money would be earmarked for the general election if DeSantis becomes the nominee, nor how many donors had contributed in the first 24 hours. DeSantis officially launched his campaign on Wednesday in an online conversation with Twitter CEO Elon Musk, but the audio stream kept crashing repeatedly, making it challenging for most people to hear the announcement in real-time.

The campaign raised $1 million within the first hour after Wednesday’s announcement, according to Griffin, who tweeted, “There was so much enthusiasm for Governor DeSantis’s vision for our Great American Comeback that he literally busted up the internet.”

In comparison, The New York Times reported that DeSantis raised almost as much as Trump, who had raised around $9.5 million in the six weeks after announcing his 2020 presidential campaign in November.