“Ron-o-Rama” & The Fine Art of Bundling

Photo: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
Theodore Schleifer
May 25, 2023

An unspoken, grim reality of presidential fundraising is that it actually sucks. On Wednesday, Ron DeSantis brought 150 or so members of his Day One finance team to the Four Seasons in Miami so that they could arm-twist their friends for money, prior to the official launch of the campaign that evening, which DeSantis would announce during a glitch-ridden Twitter interview with Elon Musk. By the following morning, the bundlers had traded their sports coats for polos, jeans and navy-blue “Day One” DeSantis hats and sky-white DeSantis quarter-zips, as they amped themselves up to pitch their networks. “I need you with me right now,” I overheard one prominent bundler shout into his phone as he began to roll calls. “I’m here in Miami with the next President of the United States.”