The donor class just got to Ron DeSantis.
In 2022, he was a hero for vetoing $35 million in Rays stadium money – and every conservative in Florida cheered.
Now a billionaire who gave DeSantis $250,000 owns the Rays, and the governor is handing him land, state budget dollars, and press conferences – while his own Republican allies call it exactly what it is.
DeSantis Vetoed Rays Stadium Money in 2022 and Said It Again in 2025
In June 2022, DeSantis stood in front of a crowd at The Villages and said what every fiscal conservative in America has wanted to hear from a governor for thirty years.
“I don’t support giving taxpayer dollars to sports stadiums, period.”
He then vetoed $35 million the Florida legislature had already approved for a Rays spring training facility.
https://twitter.com/NahBabyNahNah/status/2026440104772866265?s=20
The crowd went wild.
In May 2025 – less than twelve months ago – he said it again, unprompted.
“We are not taking your tax dollars to do any stadium at the state level. It’s just not going to happen.”
Then Patrick Zalupski bought the Tampa Bay Rays in October 2025.
Zalupski is a Jacksonville homebuilder and Republican mega-donor.
His company, Dream Finders Homes, has given more than $2.1 million to Florida Republican candidates and committees since 2016.
He gave $250,000 to DeSantis’s Never Back Down PAC.
DeSantis appointed him to the University of Florida Board of Trustees in February 2023.
Zalupski’s first contribution to DeSantis was filed just days after that appointment was announced.
By February 3, 2026 – four months after Zalupski closed on the Rays – DeSantis was standing at Hillsborough College praising the new owner’s “compelling vision” and announcing the state would be “supporting this proposal.”
What Florida Taxpayers Are Actually On the Hook For
The state Cabinet – DeSantis, Attorney General James Uthmeier, and two other statewide officials – voted unanimously to transfer 22 acres of state-owned land to Hillsborough College to fold into the Rays deal.
At the Cabinet meeting, DeSantis called it “an underutilized area – not the best area” and said he didn’t think the land was worth much.
The Hillsborough County Property Appraiser’s Office assessed it at $21 million.
The buildings sitting on that land are assessed at another $26.5 million.
https://twitter.com/TBTimes_Rays/status/2041212870503874603?s=20
One of those buildings is the county’s busiest tax collector’s office – serving 900 people a day in an area the tax collector herself described as underserved.
Uthmeier – who received $53,000 from Zalupski – backed DeSantis’s claim that the land wasn’t worth much.
No independent appraisal was included in the Cabinet documents before the vote.
The state Senate then tucked $50 million into its 2026–27 budget to replace college facilities that would be demolished for the Rays complex.
The total land package being assembled for the Rays covers 135 acres in Tampa – assessed at $49 million in land value, with $112.2 million in buildings and improvements on top of that.
Republican Hillsborough Commissioner Josh Wostal said on the open market it could be worth several times the assessed value.
He called it “a crazy giveaway.”
Republicans Are Blocking the Community Investment Tax Raid
The Florida House – already feuding with DeSantis over property tax reform – left the $50 million out of its budget completely.
Republican state House members Mike Owen and Danny Alvarez from Hillsborough wrote it plainly in a recent column: “Make no mistake: This deal will land squarely on taxpayers’ shoulders.”
Their question was simple: if there’s no money for basic infrastructure, how is there money for a billionaire’s ballpark?
Owen told reporters he agrees with DeSantis’s original position and that the new stance “sounds like a change in policy.”
Republican commissioners Josh Wostal and Chris Boles have both come out against using $467 million from the county’s Community Investment Tax – a key piece of a $2.3 billion stadium deal.
A poll by a Republican-oriented firm found that likely Hillsborough voters support a new Rays stadium but oppose the CIT money by the same wide margin.
Local conservative activist Sam Rashid said he’s an ardent DeSantis backer – and he’s going to fight the governor on this one.
“It is an absolute flip-flop by Gov. DeSantis,” he said.
The Donor Class Runs the Same Play Every Time
Here is what makes this story infuriating for anyone who actually believed DeSantis meant what he said.
When the old Rays ownership donated $50,000 to Everytown for Gun Safety after the Uvalde and Buffalo shootings – and former owner Stuart Sternberg had given money to Andrew Gillum and Hillary Clinton – DeSantis vetoed their stadium money on principle and got applause for doing it.
When the new ownership gave him $250,000 and gave his attorney general $53,000, the principles changed.
DeSantis’s office didn’t respond to press inquiries about why his position changed.
He didn’t need to.
The timeline of the appointment, the donations, and the policy reversal does the explaining.
This is the oldest trick in the donor-class playbook – and conservatives have been the ones calling it out for decades when Democrats played it.
The Florida House Republicans blocking this deal aren’t obstructionists.
They’re the ones holding the line DeSantis drew in front of that crowd at The Villages – the line that made everyone cheer – and then erased the moment his biggest donor bought the team.
Sources:
- William March, “DeSantis ‘flip-flop’ on pro sports tax subsidies divides Republicans,” Florida Trident, April 15, 2026.
- Nicolas Villamil, Lucy Marques, Marc Topkin, “DeSantis, Manfred to Talk Rays Next Week at Hillsborough College,” Tampa Bay Times, January 30, 2026.
- “Florida’s DeSantis and MLB Commissioner Support New Rays Stadium in Tampa,” CBS Miami/AP, February 3, 2026.
- “DeSantis: No State Tax Dollars for a New Rays Stadium,” St. Pete Catalyst, May 29, 2025.
- “Did Ron DeSantis Direct Taxpayer Dollars to Benefit a Campaign Donor’s $1 Billion Private Development?” The Capitolist, August 2024.
- “Sale of Tampa Bay Rays Approved by MLB Owners,” WNDB News Daytona Beach, September 2025.
