Ron DeSantis’s Biggest Donor Is a Budget Hotel Tycoon With a Passion for UFOs
- Bigelow’s $10 million puts him at top of contributor list
- Florida’s governor taps $164 million for re-election bid
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To land the single biggest donation of his re-election bid, Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis didn’t even have to ask for the money.
The $10 million contribution came on July 7, after Robert Bigelow, the Budget Suites of America hotel tycoon, contacted DeSantis’s office for a meeting, according to two people involved in the governor’s fundraising efforts. In the past, Bigelow had given small amounts of money to Democrats and Republicans, and sometimes they advanced his well-known passions: researching UFOs, aliens, and whether the human soul can outlive the body after death.