Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is the face of GOP opposition against anti-Covid-19 mandates. This position has won over not only rank and file voters but also some of the most wealthy donors to the Republican Party.

The outcome of the race will depend on whether or not former President Donald Trump runs. Many donors have invested early in potential candidates such as DeSantis because he is the most popular Trump alternative in the field.

Campaign finance records for the first seven months of 2018 showed that prominent contributors, many from other states, were investing in his 2022 election campaign. This could strengthen his prospects.

A low-risk way of getting into DeSantis’ early circle is to write a check. This will allow you to make an investment in his future run for the presidency. DeSantis can receive unlimited checks from donors, unlike potential presidential candidates who are limited in their ability to accept small donations.

In April, $5 million was donated by Ken Griffin, the GOP megadonor, the billionaire founder of Citadel hedge fund, to DeSantis’ campaign — his largest donation this year. DeSantis also received $500,000 from WeatherTech founder David MacNeil in May, $250,000 from Bernie Marcus, co-founder of Home Depot, and $250,000 from the former Illinois Governor in February. Bruce Rauner, who relocated to Florida after losing his re-election bid. Woody Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets, donated as well. He was also an ambassador for Trump’s administration.

Other Trump administration officials joined the action: Ex-ambassadors Jamie McCourt, Kelly Craft, and ex-Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ros donated $10,000 to $50,000.

Nick Iarossi is a Tallahassee lobbyist who is also a DeSantis fundraiser. He said that DeSantis is also collecting a lot of small-dollar donations across the country.

“The country is very divided right now on how to approach Covid, on how to approach Afghanistan, on the border crisis and illegal immigration,” Iarossi said. “The country is very, very split. I think a lot of folks feel like they’re being spoon-fed one side through the media and through the Washington, D.C., political class. And the only guy that’s really standing up to give that opposing view and give the other side a voice is Ron DeSantis.”

The 2024 buzz around DeSantis accelerated in late February, after he finished second to Trump in a poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference — held on friendly Florida terrain — and was by far the top choice in a hypothetical field that excluded Trump. The large donations to DeSantis, especially from outside of the state, increased.

Other top donors of DeSantis include Bill DeWitt Jr. of the St. Louis Cardinals, Dean Spanos of Los Angeles Chargers, Hall of Fame baseball player Nolan Ryan, Dana White of UFC, Dana White of Jimmy John’s, Troy Link, CEO of Jack Link, and John Schnatter, disgraced Papa John’s founder. Each of them has contributed $5,000 to $100,000 this past year.

“Florida is a large, diverse state and in many ways a bellwether of the nation,” the executive director of the state Republican Party, Helen Aguirre Ferré, a former DeSantis aide, wrote in an email. “Political contributions are a statement of support.”

Covid, Covid, Covid

Last month, polling by Tony Fabrizio, who has worked for Trump and DeSantis, found DeSantis atop a hypothetical field that didn’t include Trump. DeSantis beat rivals and gained over a Fabrizio poll in the last month, which suggests that his national standing with Republicans is improving.

DeSantis must win a second term in office. Two prominent Democrats, Rep. Charlie Crist (a Republican who served as governor before becoming governor) and Nikki Fried, the state Agriculture Commissioner, have already launched challenges. Recent polling in the state has shown that Covid-19 is on the rise in the state due to the contagious delta variant. DeSantis may be playing too safe as the anti-mandate standard-bearer.

A recent Quinnipiac University poll found DeSantis’ overall job approval rating at 47 percent, a plurality, but 51 percent disapproved of his handling of the pandemic. While a plurality (48%) said he should be reelected, 59 percent said that they don’t think he should run for president in 2024.

Other questions found growing dissatisfaction with DeSantis over pandemic measures: 61 percent said the recent surge in Covid cases was preventable. And 69 percent said DeSantis’ threat to withhold salaries from local school officials who mandate masks was a bad idea.

DeSantis’s pandemic management will be a key focus of his re-election campaign. Others have said that Covid-19’s disappearance from the news would pose a greater risk to the governor’s national ambitions.

“I think the longer that Covid politics play out, the better for him,” a Republican aide said. “No one really knows anything about the rest of his policies or anything else.”

The spotlight gets brighter

Donors are not concerned about the trajectories of Florida and DeSantis. NBC News reached out repeatedly to donors that DeSantis had listed in his most recent campaign finance reports. Most of them declined or didn’t reply to requests for information about their support. Those who did respond to our requests for information remain positive about DeSantis.

“I think that Ron DeSantis has done an excellent job as governor and deserves reelection in 2022,” Ross, the former commerce secretary, who contributed $50,000 in April, responded via email. “His fiscal and education policies have been very strong. As to his future beyond re-election, he is relatively young, about 42, so he has a long career ahead of him.”

Jordy Spiegel, an executive from private equity in California, contributed $10,000 in June. He said that he considers DeSantis to be in the top echelon among 2024 contenders.

“I put him in the camp with Kristi Noem, who I also am a fan of, or maybe Sen. Scott,” Spiegel said. “They could be part of the future leadership of the party.” Noem is the governor of South Dakota, and Scott is a senator from South Carolina.

Brian Sidman, founder of a Florida-based real estate advisory firm who donated $20,000 in April, said DeSantis’ “decisive” leadership style is what’s needed, “whether at the state or federal level.”

“We are fortunate to have DeSantis as the Governor of Florida and the country would be blessed to have him take a step into a larger role in the future,” Sidman said in an email.

However, raking in large donations from national donors as well as leading Republican polling mean that there is more scrutiny than an average gubernatorial race.

Rauner’s contribution came under fire this year when The Miami Herald reported that his wealthy gated community had early access to Covid vaccines. More recently, The Associated Press reported that the Regeneron antibody treatment DeSantis has been promoting represents a small part of the investment portfolio held by Citadel, Griffin’s hedge fund. And 314 Action, a progressive political organization, last week began targeting top DeSantis donors, including MacNeil and Marcus, with a digital ad campaign to shame them for their contributions.

DeSantis is doing at least one thing right: He is focusing on his state, and downplaying his ambitions like many others before him.

“I think he’s totally focused on Florida. He’s totally focused on his election for next year,” said former Rep. Keith Rothfus, R-Pa., an ally from their time in the House. “And anything beyond that is just raw speculation.”