Santos to reportedly announce reelection bid while campaign bleeds money

Saturday was an uncharacteristically busy news day for George after a string of quiet weeks where he was able to relax, watch his beloved Mets and pop by the scene outside Trump’s arraignment in designer sunglasses. Is he announcing his run for reelection? How’s his fundraising going? Let’s get to it.

Monday is [maybe] the big day

Let me preface this by saying any piece of news broken by the NY Post should be taken with a grain as large as one of those salt lamps. That being said, the Murdoch rag reported Saturday morning that Santos would be launching his campaign for reelection this Monday in Washington. 

The source? Anonymous. But remarkably entertaining!

“[Santos] called big donors and sat down with supporters and believes he can raise $500,000 to $750,000 in the second quarter of 2023,” the source said. This is particularly hilarious in light of other news (which I’ll get to in a moment.)

Santos’ office hasn’t confirmed or denied the rumor that he plans to officially kick off his 2024 bid on Monday, and never confirmed that the paperwork his campaign filed last month was for the purpose of seeking another term. But when potential Democratic opponent Josh Lafazan tweeted about it Saturday, George deflected with an insult rather than denying the rumor.

I’m working on independently verifying if it’s true. But speaking of something that’s definitely true…

No money, mo problems

The FEC dropped a report late Saturday based on financial reporting from the Devolder-Santos for Congress committee, and they’re not doing so well! How not well? Let’s look at the numbers:

The campaign reportedly raised a paltry $5,333.26 in the first quarter of the year, which is just a few bucks short of that aforementioned $500,000 goal. But it gets worse: The campaign refunded $8,352.78 in contributions, meaning they actually lost more than $3k. 

The refunds went to four individual donors, including top Santos 2022 contributors Mayra Ruiz and Robert Mangi. Ruiz contributed nearly $20k to Santos last cycle, while Mangi contributed nearly $30,000 to various Santos committees. (You might remember Ruiz from the yacht brokering story.) But now it seems these high rollers are having a bit of buyer’s remorse.

A quick note-

Thanks to the launch of Substack Notes, a lot of you are new here! I’ve been covering the Santos saga since it began last December, and have written extensively and appeared on TV to talk about it. If you’d like to catch up on my past work (sprinkled in with a few non-Santos things) you can find it all here. And you can also check out my MSNBC columns here.

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