Miami billionaire Ken Griffin quietly dropped $2.5M into Florida’s Senate race

Miami billionaire Ken Griffin has given $2.5 million to a political action committee backing Florida Sen. Ashley Moody’s reelection campaign as part of his nationwide spending spree to support Republicans’ efforts to maintain control of the Senate.

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He made the donation in May to a super PAC backing Moody called Stronger Safer Nation, new campaign finance records show.

Griffin has also donated $2.5 million to a committee backing Susan Collins in Maine, $2.5 million in support of Sen. Dan Sullivan in Alaska and $1.5 million behind Ashley Hinson, an Iowa congresswoman now running for Senate, according to the finance reports.

But Griffin’s sizable dump into Florida’s race stands out because Republicans in Florida have far more registered voters and haven’t lost a statewide race in years — unlike the toss-up races in Maine, Iowa and Alaska — raising questions about whether Republicans see the race as more competitive than conventional wisdom would suggest.

“Florida is absolutely in play,” said Albert Fujii, a spokesperson for Democrat Alex Vindman, who is running against Moody. “Billionaires are worried about Alex’s campaign because they know he’s going to stand up to them.”

Vindman is a former National Security Council staffer and Army veteran who gained a national profile after testifying against Trump ahead of his first impeachment in 2019. He’s running against progressive Jacksonville state House Rep. Angie Nixon in the Aug. 18 Democratic primary. Moody is Florida’s former attorney general and was nominated to the U.S. Senate by Gov. Ron DeSantis last year after Marco Rubio was named secretary of state.

A spokesperson for Griffin, Zia Ahmed, said that his political donations are “motivated by policy and principles — not personalities or partisanship” and that the Florida investment does not represent any concern about Republicans losing in Florida.

He said Griffin is planning to support a long list of Republicans running for Senate, including at least five other candidates the nonpartisan Cook Political report has identified as solidly Republican, like Moody.

“Ashley Moody has committed nearly half her life to public service on behalf of the people of Florida,” Griffin said in a statement about his donation. “I am proud to support her as she continues to advance the principles of freedom and opportunity that have made Florida an exceptional place to live, work, and raise a family.”

Griffin’s history of political contributions does not point to blind partisanship: According to reporting by the Wall Street Journal, he didn’t donate to Donald Trump before the 2024 election and isn’t investing in Texas candidate Ken Paxton this year, one of the more closely watched Senate races in determining who controls the upper chamber.

But Griffin’s recent donation to Moody is not the only indication Republicans could be more nervous about Florida than the Senate races in other bright-red states.

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Florida’s race is the only one in the “solid R” camp, according to the Cook Political Report, to see independent expenditures from the Senate Leadership Fund PAC, a committee run by Senate Majority Leader John Thune to help Republicans keep control of the Senate.

Griffin gave $10 million to that committee in April, campaign finance records show.

All of the other races the committee has spent money on — including ones in North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa and other states — are more competitive than Florida’s on paper. That committee has spent at least $200,000 in support of Moody’s race to date, according to campaign finance records.

There are 35 Senate races this November, and Democrats would need to hold on to all of their current seats and flip four Republican seats to take back control of the upper chamber for the second half of Trump’s term.

The most competitive Senate races that could hand Democrats that victory, according to the Cook Political report, are in Alaska, Maine and Ohio — all currently represented by Republican senators. That report rates Iowa and Texas as leaning toward Republicans but still closer to a toss-up than what they describe as “solid R” Florida.

Florida Republican Party Chairman Evan Power said he believes Griffin’s large donation to Moody has more to do with his residence in Florida than the competitiveness of the race. Griffin moved to Florida in 2022 and transferred the headquarters for his company, Citadel, to Miami.

“Ken Griffin lives here in Florida and has been a great partner with the Florida GOP. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that he cares about Florida,” Power wrote in a statement to the Miami Herald.

Cameron Gambini, a spokesperson for Moody, declined to comment specifically on the donation, noting that the campaign cannot coordinate with outside political committees.

“What I do know is Florida voters are fired up to support Senator Ashley Moody,” Gambini said. “Any sort of ‘toss-up’ narrative is nothing shy of a fairy tale fantasy. What we’re seeing is Floridians rallying behind Senator Moody.”

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Miami Herald staff reporter Shirsho Dasgupta contributed to this report.