Ron DeSantis may be sliding in the polls. But the Florida governor is one of the most prodigious political cash-chasers in recent US history.
That makes the question of who owns DeSantis—the GOP kingmakers, plutocrats, and general fans of authoritarian-adjacent behavior—deserving of scrutiny. My colleagues recently dove into the hundreds of donors who invested more than $100,000 in his campaign and discovered plenty of names with ignominious histories, including Sam Nazarian, a former Las Vegas nightclub titan, who an investigation concluded had paid $3 million in alleged extortion payments to felons. The questionable list continues with John Childs, the chairman of a private equity firm who was charged with solicitation of prostitution in a Florida sex spa scandal.
It's an impressive collection! So impressive, in fact, that it even caught the attention of our biggest fan, Roger Stone, who tweeted, "The people at Mother Jones are among the lowest lifeforms known to man. They are not journalists, they are human garbage devoid of ethics, integrity, or talent. But even the blind pig finds the acorn once in a while."
A blind pig securing an acorn? I had never heard of this expression until stumbling across Stone's backhanded praise of our DeSantis investigation. But it genuinely made me laugh. So here's to Roger Stone, an endlessly charming man, reading more Mother Jones. May he and anyone who supports our newsroom feel moved to donate here.
—Inae Oh