Florida's Race for Governor: Why Megadonor Ken Griffin Is Sitting This One Out

Despite Ron DeSantis' lobbying, megadonor Ken Griffin is staying on the sidelines when it comes to Florida's race for governor. NBC News Reporter Matt Dixon explains why he's decided to sit this one out and what it means for the 2026 election.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's go back to the hotline and bring in national
politics reporter for NBC News, Matt Dixon is back with us.
You can follow him on x at m Dixon fifty
five for lots of great reporting.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
And Matt wanted to have you on.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
We've heard rumors that Governor DeSantis he wanted to find
his own candidate to run for governor in twenty twenty
six to go up against Byron Donalds. And you have
some interesting new reporting on this.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
What did you learn? Yeah, well, thanks for having me.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
As it turns out Governor DeSantis not a big fan
of Byron Donalds. When Donald's endorsed President Trump in twenty
twenty four over DeSantis's own presidential bid, that you kind
of had a falling out, and that was really kind
of the first domino to fall on. DeSantis really kind
of taking up this project to find someone that he
thinks could buably take on Donalds, who has, you know,

(00:49):
already raised thirty million dollars, he is endorsed by President Trump.
So it's really really kind of a high high bar,
steep hill because Donalds is sort of really sitting in
that front runner's position. But that really hasn't deserted DeSantis,
he is still out there trying to find someone that
he thinks he can that can challenge and beat.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Byron Donald's and he personally, according to your reporting, went
to big mega donor and a previous backer of Governor DeSantis,
Ken Griffin, for help funding a challenger. Tell us about that,
and it sounds like this is more of a feud
between DeSantis and Donalds as opposed to another instance of

(01:32):
this kind of proxy battle we've seen between team DeSantis
and Team Trump.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
I think there's elements of DeSantis and Trump in this,
but yeah, there's definitely some some personal heartburn towards Donald's
directly because of the Trump endorsement. But it's really sort
of impossible to separate the two because that heartburn stems
from Donald's back and Trump. So it's it's not as
sort of as straight line a to be as some
of the others we've seen, but I think there's there's

(01:58):
certainly elements of it. And as far as is DeSantis
reaching out to a guy named Ken Griffin who's a
major national donor. He was one of Desantas's biggest donors
for his reelection campaign in twenty twenty two, We've reported
that at least on two occasions that he sort of
directly in person lobbied Ken to sort of get in
the twenty twenty six governor's race. And what that means

(02:20):
is he was asking for him to fund some challenger
to Donalds. At certain times, Lieutenant Governor j Collins, who
is likely to run, came up and other. One other meeting,
it was just sort of a general conversation about, Hey,
we would like to recruit someone to challenge Byron Donald's.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Do you think he could be helpful?

Speaker 3 (02:37):
To this point, both of both of those asks have
have sort of gone rebuffed, and Ken's team said he
has not made any decisions on Florida's governor's race.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
And it does sound like Jay Collins he is more
and more going after Byron Donalds. He had a new
post on X that said, in my first one hundred
days as lieutenant governor, I've already outperformed the guy in Congress.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Still trying to.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
Convince people he's ready to lead Florida. I mean that's
a direct shot at donald So it does sound like
Jay Collins might be getting ready to get in.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, it's not very subtle, is it at all?

Speaker 3 (03:12):
The uh, well, I mean, and this is how campaigns
ramp up, right, So you don't you don't exactly say
you're going to run.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
You don't say one you're gonna run.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
You slowly sort of a drum beat of you know,
flirting with the idea, and then you slowly start taking
shots at the other guy. And I would say the
biggest indicator is there is a five oh one c
four kind of a so called dark money group that
does not have to disclose their donors. Who's done. I
think it's about a million and a half dollars in
ads right now for Collins. He's not a candidate yet,
so they're kind of biographical ads talking about his military

(03:43):
service and what he did as lieutenant governor, but whomever,
and they don't have to disclose their donors. Whomever is
funding those, I assume isn't just spending one point five
million dollars to introduce FLIRTI Ins to Jay Collins, O heart.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
I think you're right.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
We've got national politics reporter for NBC News, Matt Dixon
with us again. You can find all of his reporting
on this, follow him on X at m Dixon fifty five.
Matt really appreciate time and insight this morning. Thanks so much,
Thanks for having me