Photo of Ron DeSantis' Unwanted Auction Items Goes Viral

Ron DeSantis–related auction items to be sold to attendees of a Florida GOP fundraiser over the weekend received no bids, according to an attendee and a Republican chairperson.

The St. Johns County GOP, representing the northeastern portion of Florida and such cities as Jacksonville and St. Augustine, held its annual Fundraising Founder's Dinner on Saturday at the Sawgrass Marriott in Ponte Vedra Beach.

DeSantis, Florida's governor and a GOP presidential candidate, is from the Jacksonville area. He has trailed front-runner Donald Trump in the polls since he entered the race in May. A Wall Street Journal poll released earlier this month said Trump nearly doubled his advantage over DeSantis and generally commands the support of about half of Republican voters in a crowded candidate field.

"Wow. Not a single person bid on the DeSantis hats at the St. Johns GOP meeting," wrote Caroline Wren, a GOP fundraiser and Trump supporter, on X (formerly Twitter), a post with a photo. "St. Johns County, FL is literally his home county. Sad!" So far, the post has received 138,900 views.

The items included a baseball cap reading "DeSantisland: Land of Liberty" and a visor that said "DeSantis: Keep Florida Great." Both items were emblazoned with the state flag.

After another X user disputed the timing of the post in relation to its contents, Wren said the event began at 6 p.m. and she snapped the photo at 8:17 p.m.

"For legal clarification, we did not hold an auction; it was a giveaway," Blake Paterson, chair of the St. Johns County GOP, told Newsweek. "No attendees bid for the DeSantis items." He added that if an item was not bid on or somebody demanded it, it was given away.

Newsweek reached out to the DeSantis campaign via email for comment.

It's arguably no surprise that the items received zero bids considering that the event's main attendees were two Trump supporters: congressman Byron Donalds, who represents Florida's 19th District, and unsuccessful Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake.

"Thank you, St. Johns County GOP, for inviting me to speak at last night's annual founders dinner in beautiful Ponte Vedra Beach, FL, alongside fellow conservatives @KariLake & @michaelgwaltz," Donalds wrote on X. "The Free State of FL is great because of the freedom-loving patriots of northeast FL."

Mike Waltz represents Florida's 6th District in the House.

Wren has long-standing ties to Trump and Lake. She was a major fundraiser in his 2020 campaign and ran Lake's Arizona campaign in November 2022.

In October 2021, ProPublica reported that Wren helped fundraise nearly $3 million for Trump's January 6, 2021, "Save America" rally, which preceded the attack on the U.S. Capitol. That assault recently resulted in major prison sentences for Proud Boys Enrique Tarrio and Joseph Biggs—22 years and 17 years, respectively. Earlier this year, Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, another Trump supporter, was sentenced to 18 years behind bars on seditious conspiracy charges.

Last Thursday during a news conference, DeSantis got into a heated exchange with a Black man who confronted the governor on his policies in connection with an August shooting in Jacksonville that was called "racially motivated" by the city's sheriff.