Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis may have greatly increased his net worth in the last year.
But the public won’t find out how much for roughly another month from now at the earliest.
The 2024 Republican presidential candidate requested an extension until July 1 to disclose his finances to the Federal Elections Commission — a request the agency granted on Tuesday. His finances otherwise would have been due June 14, which is 30 days after he made his 2024 run official. The FEC doesn’t specify what excuses candidates need to be provided in order to be granted an extension, and they tend to be provided liberally.
The delay punts the details of his finances, chief among them the advance he received for his bestselling book, “The Courage to Be Free,” from Broadside, the conservative arm of HarperCollins Publishing that is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp
Financial records from other presidential prospects indicate book advances to politicians can be significant and greatly increase their net worth. Hillary Clinton received an $8 million advance for her memoir “Living History,” about her time as First Lady.
The most recently available financial disclosure DeSantis submitted to the state of Florida is from the end of 2021. Those documents showed the governor, now 44, had a net worth of just $318,986.99, didn’t own property, and carried $21,284.92 in student loans.
The newer records he’ll file to the FEC, which then get transferred and reviewed by the US Office of Government Ethics, or OGE, will provide an update to each of these variables.
DeSantis’ updated filings are due on July 1 not just to the FEC but to Florida’s Commission on Ethics as part of annual requirements that apply to all Florida elected officials and members of the legislature.
The forthcoming deadline was one of the factors that contributed to his campaign seeking a delay in reporting to the FEC, a letter from his attorney showed. Now the two deadlines match.
“The additional time will help ensure accuracy and consistency,” the attorney, Charlie Spies, wrote in the letter.
The documents he submits to the federal government will have details that the state’s don’t, including reporting requirements for his wife, Florida first lady Casey DeSantis. Also, if DeSantis didn’t receive his book advance until 2023, then the Florida documents may not contain it but the federal documents would have to.
OGE guidance requires that presidential candidates disclose the exact amount of their book advances, and that reported assets encompass the full prior year, up to the time the candidate filed to run for office. Candidates can provide broad ranges, rather than specific figures, for how much they received in book royalties.
DeSantis’ request for an extension isn’t unusual, and candidates are allowed to request a deadline change of up to 90 days.
In 2021, the governor had an astonishingly simple set of finances for a politician of his stature, someone considered to be former President Donald Trump’s lead opponent in the 2024 GOP primary race.
Trump, 76, was likely the wealthiest man ever to live in the White House after overseeing a vast real estate empire that included golf courses, condos, and opulent private clubs under the umbrella of the privately owned Trump Organization.
Forbes estimates Trump’s net worth at $3 billion, though Trump himself has pegged the figure at $10 billion. It’s a huge matter of debate given that Trump famously refused to publish his tax returns that would reveal his annual income (though some of the documents leaked to the New York Times).
DeSantis, in contrast, was raised by working-class parents in Florida and attended Ivy League schools before joining the Navy and then becoming a US congressman. As governor, he makes $134,181 a year — a pay cut from the $174,000 a year he made when he was a member of the US House representing Florida’s 6th District from 2013 to 2018.
He and his family live in the governor’s mansion and hold no property after selling their Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, home in March 2019 for $460,000, according to The Associated Press. The DeSantises placed the earnings from the house into the USAA account.
DeSantis’ previous finances also showed he doesn’t trade stocks, a decision he explained in his memoir.
“Reports abounded about members of Congress making a killing in the market based on inside information,” he wrote of his decision to stop trading before going to Congress in 2013. “I did not want to be in a position where a vote or other action I took could be questioned based on what stocks I owned.”
But his financial situation may have changed dramatically just with his book, which hit the bestseller list when it went to market. The advance may have been lucrative, Politico previously reported in February 2022.
GOP Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, another 2024 presidential candidate, earned a $184,167 advance for his book. When Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts was running for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, she received a $730,350 advance for her book.
A text sent to a campaign representative inquiring about the advance amount was not returned.
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