A clip of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaking at Embry University in 2014 has resurfaced today, revealing the popular Florida Republican’s potentially unpopular take on campaign finance and fundraising.
The remarks came up when DeSantis was asked for his opinion on money in politics, specifically whether he believes that large donations from special interests mean that the politician receiving the money will feel indebted to the donor.
“I don’t think that that’s true at all, that my positions are set in stone,” said DeSantis in 2014, when he was serving as a U.S. Representative.
“My policy was, ‘If you want to give money to me, I’ll take any lawful donations.'” He explained, “Because some people say, ‘I won’t take from this group or this group,’ and I’m like well wait a minute, if that’s what you’re doing, then you’re basically saying the people you will take from, then somehow you owe them.”
He clarified, “My view is, I don’t owe anybody anything. They’re buying into me, or they’re supporting me because they think I’m gonna do a good job,” then noted that “there have been all kinds of instances where people supported me and then have been disappointed with some of the positions I’ve taken.”
DeSantis’s view at this point may be unorthodox, but the Florida politician then said that donation limits should be waived entirely so Americans can easily see which billionaires control which candidates.
“I think part of the problem is that you have all these limits, so you’re causing members to raise a lot of money from a lot of different interests,” noted DeSantis, “whereas if you just disclosed everything, if you have 2-3 main funding sources then you could evaluate that and say, ‘Okay that candidate is supported by some billionaire in San Francisco who wants cap and trade, this guy is supported by some guy in Vegas who wants casinos.'”
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DeSantis suggested “it would be actually more transparent,” because currently “the ways the limits work, all these members just spend so much time making money” and not representing their constituents.
Though still riding high from his massively successful reelection campaign, many conservatives expect DeSantis to mount a presidential campaign against 45th President Donald Trump.
DeSantis is the only candidate who has polled in double digits next to Trump, however, he has only beat the former president in a handful of outlier polls.
h/t The Conservative Treehouse
