Byron Donalds is leading Florida's governor race by single digits in the polls — and by a nine-figure margin in money. A new analysis shows exactly whose money it is.
The Tampa Bay Times went through the campaign finance records for both nominees and their committees. It found that at least 18 billionaires have given money in the race. Seventeen of them gave to Donalds. Together they account for $23.3 million of his money — 18% of everything he's raised.
His Democratic opponent, David Jolly, got money from one billionaire: Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, for $50,000.
$131 million, and most of it in big checks
As of September 18, Donalds had raised $131 million — about eight times Jolly's $16 million. The Times found the gap isn't about more Floridians backing him. It's about bigger checks:
- Two-thirds of Donalds' money came from corporations, political committees and billionaires giving at least $10,000. For Jolly, it was near 8%.
- More than $39 million, about 30% of his haul, came from outside Florida.
- Nearly 60% of Donalds' individual donors have an address outside the state, compared with 32% of Jolly's.
- Jolly has more individual donors overall, and about twice as many in Florida.
So the candidate with fewer Florida donors has eight times the money.
Who's paying
The Times named names:
- Jeff Yass, the investor, gave $7.5 million directly to Donalds, plus $3.7 million to a committee that passed the same amount straight to him — about $11 million in all. Yass runs a trading firm that is big in prediction markets and owns a large share of TikTok's parent company. His spokesperson said he gave because Donalds is a "school-choice warrior."
- Ken Griffin, the Miami hedge fund billionaire, is among the 17. We wrote in July when Griffin gave $10 million in a single check.
- The DeVos family, including former Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, gave a combined $1 million.
Beyond the billionaires, the biggest money came from political committees, gambling and real estate. The Seminole Tribe of Florida, which owns Hard Rock and runs the state's only legal mobile sportsbook, gave $5.5 million. DraftKings and FanDuel gave about half a million each. Developers and construction firms were the second-largest group, including a New Jersey company that had proposed, then scrapped, a data center in Palm Beach County.
Why this matters for Florida families
A governor decides which industries get regulated and how hard, what schools get funded, and whose taxes go up or down. Donalds' biggest funders have clear interests in exactly those decisions: gambling expansion, development, school choice. Yass's own spokesperson tied his $11 million directly to Donalds' school-choice stance.
What the filings show
Byron Donalds has raised $131 million for governor, eight times his opponent. Seventeen of the 18 billionaires funding Florida's governor race gave to him, for $23.3 million, led by Jeff Yass at about $11 million. Two-thirds of his money came from donors who gave $10,000 or more, and nearly 60% of his donors live outside Florida.
