Ron DeSantis’ fundraising woes are only getting worse

Ron DeSantis' hardcore supporters continue to hope that he will turn his ailing presidential campaign around, but polls released in mid-October aren't looking good for the far-right Florida governor.

A Morning Consult poll released on October 17 finds him trailing GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump by 45 percent. And according to Fox News polling, Trump leads DeSantis by 46 percent.

One of DeSantis' biggest problems is financial. DeSantis' presidential campaign, Politico's Jessica Piper stresses in an article published on October 18, has been hurting from a fundraising standpoint — and that problem isn't getting better.

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to hold office again?

"Ron DeSantis has a money problem: Most of the cash in his campaign's account is off limits, and the donors who have fueled his strong fundraising so far are people he can't ask again for more money," Piper explains. "A Politico analysis shows that roughly 75 percent of all money raised by DeSantis came from donors who can no longer give again for the primary: DeSantis raised $31.3 million through the end of September, and of that, $23.8 million came from more than 3800 donors who have each given at least the maximum primary amount of $3300."

The Politico reporter adds, "No other candidate comes close to those figures. For Nikki Haley, that number is 44 percent; for Tim Scott, it's 36 percent; for Vivek Ramaswamy, it is 23 percent, excluding his self-funding."

Piper notes that although "big donors" have "given DeSantis a leg up over the rest of the field," his presidential campaign "now faces a two-fold problem: Many of his top donors can't give any more to him, and a chunk of the money they have provided can't be used until a general election."

"Big donors who have already given the maximum to DeSantis' campaign can still give to the super PAC supporting him, Never Back Down, which has provided on-the-ground support in early primary states and spent more than $37 million on ads," Piper reports. "But the super PAC can't legally coordinate with the campaign. And DeSantis will need to expand his donor base in order to raise more money as he fights to better position himself heading into the primary season."

READ MORE: Gavin Newsom vs. Ron DeSantis: Who has the more appealing state?

Politico's full report is available at this link.