From Hamptons fundraisers to soccer ticket raffles, GOP presidential candidates chase cash

WASHINGTON — The summer fundraising season is in full swing in the Hamptons, where Republican presidential hopefuls such as Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott and Nikki Haley have been courting deep pocketed donors in their bids to surge past former President Donald Trump for the GOP nomination.

“I’ve been getting all sorts of invitations,” billionaire business owner John Catsimatidis said of competing fundraisers.

But as the traditional summer chase for dollars plays out on Long Island's East End, other GOP presidential candidates are turning to unconventional methods, such as raffling gift certificates and sporting event tickets to raise enough small-dollar donations to qualify for the Aug. 23 GOP debate in Milwaukee, the first of the primary season.

“We are doing some gimmicks like a lot of other candidates,” Miami Mayor Francis Suarez told young conservative activists gathered at the Turning Point USA annual convention last month. Suarez’s campaign raffled a chance to win front-row seats for soccer star Lionel Messi’s debut game for the Inter Miami professional soccer team.

Chasing spots on debate stage

The fundraising race comes as Republican presidential candidates face an Aug. 21 deadline to secure 40,000 individual contributions from donors in at least 20 states to qualify for the debate. Candidates also must poll at 1% in three national polls or in two national polls and two separate state polls in states with early primaries or caucuses.

According to The Associated Press, as of Friday seven candidates had met the polling and fundraising thresholds: Trump, DeSantis, Scott, Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

Former Vice President Mike Pence and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson have met the polling requirements but still are working to collect enough individual contributions before Aug. 21.

Trump, who is far ahead in the polls, has not said whether he will participate in the debate. His advisers told the AP he was considering holding a competing event on the day of the debate.

Looking for a Trump alternative

Trump has led the pack in overall fundraising, but the scandals surrounding the former president, including a third criminal indictment handed down last week, have prompted some in the Hamptons’ donor class to look for an alternative candidate.

Prominent GOP donor Andy Sabin, chairman of Sabin Metal Corporation based in East Hampton, is among a group of business owners hosting an Aug. 9 fundraiser for Scott (R- S.C.) in East Hampton. Former Trump White House economic adviser Gary Cohen is among the co-hosts, Sabin said.

“People are groping for somebody other than Trump and DeSantis,” Sabin said.

Sabin said he was a longtime Trump supporter. But he blamed Trump for Republicans' loss of both Georgia U.S. Senate seats, which led to Democrats gaining control of the chamber after the 2020 elections.

Democrats Jon Osoff and Raphael Warnock won Senate runoff elections in Georgia on Jan. 5, 2021. The day before, Trump had used a rally in the state to call on Georgia officials to challenge his 2020 election loss.

“There was all this crap about election denying and sure, every election has some funny business, but he lost his election, unfortunately,” Sabin said of Trump's appearance in Georgia. “He really lost it, and that’s the way it is. He should have moved on, because he did so many good things.”

Trump pleaded not guilty last Thursday to federal charges that he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election by promoting false assertions of widespread election fraud and pressuring Republican leaders to protest the certification of election results.

Sabin said he initially leaned toward supporting DeSantis in 2024. But he said he soured on DeSantis after the Florida governor signed a state law banning abortions after six weeks, and after he initially described Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “territorial dispute.” Sabin said he believes such stances will not help Republicans win the White House.

Sabin said of his support for Scott: “He's got a lot of personality. He epitomizes the American dream.” Sabin noted he has spoken with Scott several times and exchanged text messages with him on a number of issues.

Catsimatidis, CEO of Red Apple Group, lives and works in Manhattan but spends most summer weekends in the Hamptons, a must-stop for presidential candidates for years.

Haley headlined a fundraiser in East Hampton last Sunday, and DeSantis spent time meeting with donors in Southampton on July 20, according to a report on CNBC.

Catsimatidis, who also hosts a Sunday morning political talk show on WABC-AM radio, a station he owns, said he has yet to commit to a candidate. But he noted Republican donors who are “looking for somebody that is tough enough to knock” Trump out of contention.

“I've met a lot of candidates and a lot of candidates are good people, but I don't know who's tougher than Donald Trump,” Catsimatidis said.

The latest campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission last month showed Trump with the most cash on hand of the GOP candidates — $22.5 million. Scott had $21.1 million and DeSantis ranked third with $12.2 million.

Unusual fundraising tactics raise questions

Ramaswamy, founder of a biotech company, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgam, who built his wealth running and eventually selling a large software company to Microsoft, have invested millions of dollars of their own money in the race, but also are chasing small donations.

Ramaswamy has promised a select group of supporters a 10 percent cut of the campaign donations they bring in, while Burgam is offering $20 gift certificates in exchange for a minimum $1 donation.

Campaign finance experts said such fundraising tactics may not violate campaign finance laws, but raise concerns nonetheless.

David Primo, a professor of political science and business administration at the University of Rochester, told Newsday, “the tactics we are seeing in the 2024 presidential primaries reflect the trend of small donor support being viewed as a marker of grassroots support.”

Primo argued “gimmicks like giving away a $20 gift card in exchange for a $1 donation, as Burgum has done, create ‘AstroTurf donations’ rather than reflect genuine grassroots support, but if it qualifies him for the debate, it gives him a stage on which he can get his message out.”

Brendan Fisher, deputy executive director at the government watchdog group Documented, said Ramaswamy's fundraising incentive program “doesn't raise any obvious legal issues, as long as the commissions paid to participants are properly reported.”

Ramaswamy's program “sounds roughly analogous to the relationship that campaigns might otherwise have with professional fundraisers; campaigns regularly contract with professional fundraisers to chase donors, and their compensation may be fixed at a percentage of the amount they bring in," Fisher said.

"However, because participants in this program are being treated as independent contractors, I'd expect to see payments above $200 to those individuals disclosed on the campaign's future FEC reports, just as the campaign would pay any other contractor,” Fisher said. 

Fisher was referring to an FEC requirement for campaigns to keep receipts or invoices for expenses greater than $200.

Stuart McPhail, Senior Litigation Counsel for the nonpartisan group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said the novel fundraising techniques of some GOP candidates illustrate "the perverse incentives created through the inflation in campaign expenses we see as a result of the flood of money into elections.” 

McPhail continued: “While paying amateur fundraisers a commission, or raffling off tickets do not directly violate federal campaign finance laws … they do create risks of illicit campaign activity. Someone receiving a 10 percent cut of any donation, for example, is incentivized to use strong-arm tactics or even to facilitate unlawful transactions to maximize their commission.”

By Laura Figueroa Hernandez

laura.figueroa@newsday.com@Laura_Figueroa

Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.