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The pro-Scott super PAC, Opportunity Matters Fund, has received backing from conservative donors like Richard Gaby, who funded former President Donald Trump and Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. But Scott has also received backing from major party donors, like New York hedge fund manager Dan Loeb, a gay rights fundraiser who is expected to host a fundraiser to support Scott later this year.
With top GOP levels divided on whether to stay on track with Trump or part ways with him, senior Republicans say Scott’s ability to win support from the party’s divergent wings could be a boon. if he was leading a race in 2024.
Bay Area investor Bill Oberndorf, who has donated millions of dollars to Republican causes over the years and opposed Trump’s appointment in 2016, called Scott “that rare politician in whom you can be confident to keep their word “.
“I definitely see Tim as someone who has the integrity and experience to be President of the United States,” added Oberndorf, a school’s choice supporter who donated $ 200,000 to the super PAC pro-Scott. During the 2020 campaign, the super PAC spent more than $ 4 million to support Republicans in nearly a dozen races.
A Scott 2024 race is far from won in advance. The senator has repeatedly dismissed questions about a presidential candidacy and said he is focused on his 2022 re-election campaign in South Carolina, where he is a big favorite. And even if Scott runs a presidential campaign, he wouldn’t necessarily be a frontrunner: Many Republicans say there’s a lot more enthusiasm for potential candidates more closely associated with the conservative base, like Trump or the Florida governor. Ron DeSantis. DeSantis has embarked on its own nationwide fundraising campaign, including a stop last week in Michigan.
But that doesn’t dampen the GOP buzz about Scott’s prospect of a presidential candidacy – and the prospect that he could benefit from Ellison’s largesse. It wouldn’t be the first time that a wealthy patron almost single-handedly transforms a Republican candidate into a nomination contestant. During the 2012 race, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was funded by casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum by investor Foster Friess, helping them move deeper into the competition than originally planned.
Ellison invested heavily in the 2016 GOP Primary, directing $ 5 million towards a super PAC aligned with Florida Senator Marco Rubio. Now it’s Team Scott who is suing the Oracle co-founder, who Forbes says is the seventh richest person in the world, with a net worth of $ 116 billion. So far this year, pro-Scott outfits have spent at least $ 17,000 on Hawaii-related travel expenses, including air and ground transportation and accommodation, according to financial disbursement records.
Reps for Scott and Ellison declined to comment on the relationship.
The second-largest donor to the pro-Scott super PAC is another prominent Republican mega-donor: Las Vegas casino billionaire Steve Wynn. In the Georgia Senate run-off last year, Wynn, who is close to some of the GOP’s top strategists, donated $ 1 million to the Opportunity Matters Fund. In the weeks that followed, the organization aired a battery of direct-to-camera ads with Scott urging his supporters to go to the polls in Georgia.
Top Republicans had hoped the advocacy would help win over voters in a neighboring state with a large black population, though the party would eventually lose both races and, with them, control of the Senate.
The third-largest amount given to the super PAC came from Ben Navarro, a businessman and philanthropist based in Charleston, South Carolina. Along with his wife Kelly, Navarro – who in a statement described Scott as a “longtime friend” – donated $ 500,000 to Opportunity Matters Fund. Those familiar with Scott’s operation describe Navarro, who in 2018 made an unsuccessful effort to buy out the Carolina Panthers from the NFL, as an influential figure in the senator’s orbit.
But Scott’s support doesn’t just come from big donors. He is also developing a formidable network of small dollars and amassing money from online contributors across the country. So far this year, Scott’s campaign committee – which, unlike the super PAC, can only accept donations of up to $ 5,900 – has raised $ 11.7 million, more than any other holder of the campaign. either party with a view to re-election next year. In the second quarter, which ended on June 30, Scott raised $ 9.6 million, more than double the total for Rubio, the second Republican incumbent in 2022.
Scott’s totals – which were pulled from more than 91,000 donors, according to his campaign – reflect a concerted effort to scale his operation to the smallest dollar. Scott, who has already nearly doubled what he raised in his last run, turned to digital company Targeted Victory to help him build his online fundraising machine. Scott, who has donated $ 2.5 million to Targeted Victory so far this year, has raised funds particularly around his State of the Union response, running Facebook ads accusing the Liberals of attack his “cotton story in Congress”.
The aggressive effort, according to Republicans, is designed to avoid the scenario that Scott’s colleague in South Carolina, GOP Senator Lindsey Graham, faced in 2020, when he was dragged into a surprisingly difficult race after having been largely overtaken by his Democratic opponent. As Graham finally won comfortably, National Republicans jumped into the race to close the financial gap.
Opportunity Matters Fund, meanwhile, has raised more than $ 13 million since its inception, nearly 75% of which from Ellison. But other donors have also shown interest, some of whom have praised Scott for his advocacy of so-called “opportunity zones,” which provide financial incentives for business investment in low-income areas.
Drew Sparacia, a Cleveland-based commercial real estate executive, donated $ 40,000 to Super PAC. Sparacia – who noted that the contribution was “by far” his largest as a political donor – said her relationship with Scott had grown over the past few years, during which the two spoke on the phone. and met in person.
“It was a very big decision for me,” said Sparacia, whose firm specializes in preserving historic properties, of his donation. “And that should tell you how much I love and support Senator Scott, and I think he is destined to do great things in the Senate and wherever he ends up going.”
Scott’s donor outreach took him to financial centers, including Texas, where he attended an event this spring hosted by former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove. The senator also met with representatives of Dallas-based donor Kenny Troutt. The founder of the telecommunications company, who owns a Kentucky Derby winning horse, recently donated $ 50,000 to Opportunity Matters Fund.
Super PAC organizers declined to say which 2022 races it plans to invest in. But those who know the group say his overall goal is to raise Scott’s profile by empowering other Republicans, as he did in 2020.
Yet even though they are helping Scott now, many of the party’s top donors say they have yet to commit to him for 2024.
Jeff Yass, a suburban Philadelphia-based options trader who has donated millions of dollars to libertarian causes, has said he supports Scott because of the senator’s promotion of school choice policies. Yass donated $ 30,000 to Opportunity Matters Fund and funded Scott’s Senate campaign in 2016.
But when it comes to 2024, Yass said it was “too early” to support “the presidential candidates.”
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