Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis celebrates onstage during his 2022 U.S. midterm elections night party in Tampa, Florida, November 8, 2022.
Marco Bello | Reuters
Gov. Ron DeSantis has assembled a team of rich business leaders to assist raise money for his presidential campaign, based on a partial list of fundraisers provided by a senior political official with the Florida Republican.
The bundler list, which was first provided to CNBC, includes business leaders from industries starting from real estate to finance. DeSantis is about to announce his run for president Wednesday evening during a Twitter discussion with the social media platform’s owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Bundlers will gather on the 4 Seasons hotel in Miami from Wednesday through Friday. They’ll receive briefings from campaign staff and call around to boost money for the campaign, NBC News reported. DeSantis is taken into account Donald Trump’s biggest rival within the GOP primary, although the previous president has held a healthy lead in recent polls.
The DeSantis campaign’s bundler list includes David Horowitz, the chairman of the Horowitz Group, a family office and real estate investment firm based in California. Horowitz didn’t return a request for comment.
Horowitz has previously donated $25,000 to the pro-DeSantis PAC Friends of Ron DeSantis, which was rebranded with recent leadership because the Florida governor moved to launch his bid for the White House. In the course of the 2020 election, Horowitz contributed just over $35,000 to the Republican National Committee and a minimum of $2,800 to Trump’s failed campaign, based on data from nonpartisan site OpenSecrets.
Hal Lambert, the founding father of investment management firm Point Bridge Capital, can also be on the list.
Lambert’s firm created the MAGA ETF, an exchange traded fund that is advertised as a way for people to take a position in firms that align with Republican political views. Lambert served on Trump’s Inaugural Committee and was a national finance chair for Trump’s successful 2016 campaign for president, based on his website.
“I actually think north of $500k of hard dollars may be very possible for me,” Lambert said in an email when asked how much he’s aiming to boost for DeSantis. “I need to win in November and I do not think Trump will win. If you happen to take a look at the map, the states we want, he’s losing or has lost previously,” he later added.
Records show that Lambert has also donated to the Friends of Ron DeSantis PAC and Trump’s campaign.
Jay Zeidman, a managing partner at health care investment firm Altitude Ventures, can also be listed as a DeSantis campaign fundraiser. Zeidman didn’t return a request for comment.
Zeidman previously donated to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s failed campaign for president, based on OpenSecrets. The Recent York Times reports that Zeidman is friends with Bush’s son, George P. Bush.
Frank Mermoud, the president of Orpheus International, can also be a member of the DeSantis bundler team, based on the list provided to CNBC. Records show that he, too, was a supporter of Bush’s failed primary run for president in 2016.
Mermoud couldn’t be reached for comment.
