DeSantis calls early push for presidency a success in fundraising call with donors

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis claimed his early push for the White House was a burgeoning success in a fundraising call with donors Monday, telling backers that his conservative message is drawing “converts” from across the country.

The Republican contender urged supporters to sustain their financial support as he barnstorms through crucial early-voting states, drawing bigger crowds than anticipated in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

DeSantis said his campaign is attracting Republican voters who likely had a favorable view of his stewardship of Florida — but perhaps “weren’t sure” if he was presidential material.

“We feel like we have really good momentum on the ground in the early states,” he said, highlighting that his coffers brimmed with $8.4 million in donations in the first 24 hours after he declared his candidacy.

DeSantis’ campaign chief, Generra Peck, exhorted those on the call to sustain their “investment” in the Floridian’s White House bid, adding that the nascent campaign is aiming to break donation records as the race intensifies.

Perhaps drawing a distinction with his primary rival, former President Donald Trump, DeSantis, 44, repeatedly assured supporters that he had the requisite “discipline” to bring systemic change to Washington D.C. should he become president.

“We are building out the type of organization that we need,” he said of his campaign’s opening efforts.

Most polls still show DeSantis trailing Trump, 76, by significant margins. While still comfortably in pole position, the 45th president’s future remains clouded by state and federal indictments he has dismissed as politically motivated witch hunts.

An internal poll conducted by the pro-DeSantis Never Back Down PAC indicated that his blanketing of Iowa paid dividends with the two men in a virtual dead heat.

While he didn’t mention the cases against Trump on the call, DeSantis pledged to rein in the “administrative state” — and trained his sights on the FBI in particular.

The White House hopeful promised to remake the upper reaches of the agency, asserting that it had become a “weaponized” instrument of a heavily left-leaning federal bureaucracy.

“All those agencies will be cleared out on day one,” DeSantis said, noting that “you have to have a disciplined executive in there” in order to successfully confront them.

“The culture has really gone downhill,” he said of the FBI. “Because it’s been infected at the upper echelon by Washington politics.”

The candidate reiterated several other of his policy imperatives on the call, including border security and the eradication of woke influences on the military and education.

Progressive infiltration of fundamental pillars of American society, DeSantis said, has weakened the nation and left it vulnerable — especially in light of growing Chinese global influence.

“We have to recognize China is the foremost threat to our country,” he said. “If we don’t get our act together as a country, 30 or 40 years from now you’re going to have kids learning 57 pronouns in Mandarin.”

The same policies that spawned Florida’s economic and population booms, he contended, can produce similar impacts in D.C.

“The bureaucracy is much more entrenched and weaponized,” he said. “We know what we’re walking into.”