When Iowa evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats endorsed Ron DeSantis in his ultimately fruitless bid for the Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump accused the Florida governor of buying the endorsement.
Trump questioned whether DeSantis had committed “a major Campaign Finance Violation by paying for… Bob Vander Plaats’ useless endorsement.” He separately wrote: “I don’t believe anything Bob Vander Plaats says. Anyone who would take $95,000, and then endorse a Candidate who is going nowhere, is not what Elections are all about!”
Several groups linked to DeSantis did in fact donate $95,000 to Vander Plaats’ nonprofit, the Family Leader Foundation, according to Reuters. New tax records obtained by Rolling Stone show that the Florida governor’s backers also funneled $500,000 into a related advocacy group also helmed by Vander Plaats, the Family Leader Inc.
When Trump first accused Vander Plaats of trading his endorsement for cash, the evangelical leader responded with indignation, telling The Blaze: “When you come out against me, and by extension the Family Leader, and saying that we’re ‘pay for play,’ we’re ‘bought and paid for,’ and this is how we do business, that’s just beyond the pale.”
The public, at the time, didn’t know the half of it — or about most of the cash that Vander Plaats’ organizations had received from DeSantis world.
The $500,000 came from Building America’s Future, a dark money group led by the Florida governor’s allies. According to The Washington Post, Building America’s Future was founded by DeSantis’ first presidential campaign manager, Generra Peck, and Phil Cox, who was a senior advisor with DeSantis’ primary Super PAC Never Back Down.
The $500,000 donation was more money than the Family Leader Inc. reported raising in either of its two most recent annual tax returns.
The records obtained by Rolling Stone also show that Building America’s Future helped fund another group that delivered cash to the Vander Plaats network. Building America’s Future donated $3.3 million to another pro-DeSantis group called And to the Republic, which paid $20,000 for a table at the Family Leader’s “Family Leadership Conference” held in July 2023.
“The Family Leader has been proven consistently to be above and beyond reproach,” Drew Zahn, the organization’s communications director, says in a statement. “The Family Leader does not make endorsements in the presidential primaries. Bob Vander Plaats’ endorsements are personal alone, separate and independent of the Family Leader. Furthermore, neither the Family Leader nor any of its leadership or team members have ever received a contribution for the endorsement of any candidate.
He adds, “As a Christian ministry, we hold ourselves to the highest standards and utmost integrity, including all finances, in pursuit of our mission. This is evidenced by clean annual audits and a 100 percent rating by Charity Navigator.”
Vander Plaats, an evangelical powerhouse did not endorse Trump in 2016 or 2020, but his backing has long been coveted by GOP hopefuls seeking a strong showing in the Iowa caucuses, which kick off the Republican nominating contests. Before Trump completely took over the GOP, Vander Plaats successfully backed three Republican Iowa caucus winners in a row.
For years, Vander Plaats has openly criticized Trump as morally unfit to hold office. “I’ve never endorsed him, but he proved he was not worthy of the endorsement,” he said in November.
DeSantis, of course, finished a distant second in the Iowa caucuses, and dropped out before the New Hampshire primary. But even as DeSantis’ campaign floundered, Vander Plaats attempted to sell the idea that DeSantis winning Iowa could be a positive thing for Trump.
“By Iowans choosing DeSantis on Caucus night, Jan. 15, we will launch a candidate who can win, not just the primary, but the presidency as well. And when he wins, we will launch a proven leader who has a record of confronting the bureaucracy and defeating its elitist agenda,” he wrote in January, just weeks before DeSantis would suspend his campaign.
Vander Plaats continued: “If you believe that the system is being weaponized against Trump and many of us, then a DeSantis presidency is the former president’s — and our — best line of defense. A DeSantis presidency ensures justice for Trump.”
The public has no way of knowing who funded Building America’s Future or its support for DeSantis, though according to The Wall Street Journal, billionaire Elon Musk was a major donor to the group during the 2022 election cycle.
Peck and Cox, the same consultants who helped spearhead DeSantis’ 2024 effort, went on to guide a Musk-led Super PAC that spent over $150 million to aid Trump’s presidential campaign.
Building America’s Future went on to boost Trump as well, with messaging campaigns that also sought to play off religion for political benefit — simultaneously touting Harris’ support for Israel to Muslim voters in Michigan, while telling Jews in Pennsylvania she wanted to cut off arms shipments to Israel.
More from Rolling Stone
Best of Rolling Stone
Sign up for RollingStone’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
