TALLAHASSEE --- Heading into the final weekend of the primary, the two gubernatorial frontrunners remain the biggest recipients of the state’s matching fund program that has doled out $3 million so far this election cycle.
Former U.S. Rep. David Jolly, among six Democrats running for governor, picked up $63,600 on Friday from the voter-approved public campaign finance program, pushing his allotment over the past five weeks to $1.66 million.
U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, one of 11 Republicans running to replace the term-limited Gov. Ron DeSantis, received a little more than $21,900 on Friday.
Donalds has now received nearly $823,000 from the program that matches contributions of $250 or less from individuals residing in Florida to the campaign accounts of candidates running for governor, state attorney, chief financial officer and agriculture commissioner.
Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, the only other gubernatorial candidate to qualify for the funding, was approved for nearly $8,900 on Friday. Over the past five weeks, Collins has received more than $177,000 from the fund.
A candidate for one of the statewide offices must apply for the funding. To qualify for the money, candidates for Cabinet positions must raise at least $100,000 and gubernatorial candidates must raise at least $150,000.
None of the other Republican candidates requested to participate in the program.
Conservative activist James Fishback’s contributions exceeded $700,000 after he reported loaning his campaign $100,000 on Aug. 13.
Former House Speaker Paul Renner’s campaign account raised $490,000. But as with Donalds and Collins, Renner has a political committee that opens fundraising.
Over the past year, the political committee Friends of Paul Renner raised more than $6.1 million, which has mostly been spent.
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The political committee Friends of Byron Donalds PAC has raised nearly $100 million since February 2025, of which almost half has been spent.
The political committees Collins oversees --- Keep Florida Strong PC and Quiet Professionals FL --- have raised nearly $7 million since the start of the year. Most of the money, all within the Quiet Professional FL committee, has been spent.
State Rep. Dotie Joseph of North Miami is the only other Democrat running for governor to request participation in the program. Joseph has raised just $103,000, with $19,000 picked up in the first weeks of August as media reports have painted the former Republican Jolly as the Democratic establishment candidate against a progressive Joseph.
Joseph jumped into the contest after Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings withdrew on the eve of qualifying in June due to a health issue.
Jolly has raised nearly $6.4 million in his campaign account.
Other than Donalds and Collins no other Republican running for governor requested to participate in the program that the Legislature unsuccessfully asked voters to end in 2010 and 2024.
Critics have long described the program as welfare for politicians.
Candidates must agree to abide by certain campaign expenditure limits, including caps on personal funding to $25,000 and contributions from national, state, and county executive committees of a political party to $250,000.
Promoted as a way to reduce the influence of big-money contributors and help underfunded candidates compete in costly statewide elections, 64 percent of voters approved the program in 1998. The item was on the ballot as part of a broad amendment that also made school board elections nonpartisan, let candidates for governor run in the primary without a lieutenant governor, and open primary elections to all voters if the primary winner wouldn’t have a general election opponent.
The two other statewide candidates drawing state matching dollars --- Attorney General James Uthmeier and his Democratic challenger Jose Javier Rodriguez --- will bypass the primary.
With $1.5 million raised into his campaign account, Uthmeier picked up $788 in the latest round of state distributions, putting his five-week total at just over $147,000.
Rodriguez, a former state senator and an assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor under President Joe Biden, got a little more than $3,100 on Friday. Rodriguez has now drawn $265,000 through the program, which has helped push his campaign fundraising to over $1 million.
The political committee Friends of James Uthmeier had nearly $8.6 million on hand as of Aug. 13.
The political committee Floridians for JJR was holding around $412,000 at the same time.
