Money from Hemp industry flowed into Florida GOP coffers after veto, frantic group chat effort
Hemp Industry Raises $1,7 M for Florida GOP After DeSantis' Veto of Anti-Hemp Bill.
The Republican Party of Florida is at least $1.7 million dollars richer thanks to a frantic fundraising effort from hemp companies days after Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed a bill that would have effectively killed the industry, new finance reports show.
The effort, which took place over a WhatsApp group chat called “Save Florida Hemp” days after the veto, was denounced by critics as a quid pro quo deal and lauded by hemp leaders as a grassroots fundraising effort in the face of adversity; the $1.7 million still pales in comparison to the tens of millions of dollars Trulieve, Florida’s biggest medical marijuana company and their main adversary, has poured into the ballot initiative seeking to legalize recreational marijuana.
Executives told members of the group chat, which was reviewed by the South Florida Sun Sentinel, that they had 72 hours beginning June 25 to collectively wire $2 million to the Republican Party of Florida and another six months to send another $3 million. They urged CEOs, smoke shop owners, distributors and others to wire as much money as they could to the Republican Party less than three weeks after DeSantis vetoed the hemp bill, SB 1698.
A message repeatedly sent in the chat read, “We are currently seen as Desantis’ allies to defeat the recreational ballot initiative. Our lobby team made promises to rally some serious funding to stand with him on this. He chose Hemp as his champion and now we’ve got to deliver. Nothing in life is free and neither was this veto.”
The numbers
Now, the numbers from that effort have come in: The Republican Party of Florida has reported its financial contributions from April to Aug. 16, amassing a total of $16 million, at least $1.7 million of which came directly from the hemp industry, a rough estimate based on the descriptors associated with donors’ industries such as “hemp” and “tobacco,” the names of donors that matched names in the group chat, and the businesses located at their addresses. Most of that money, reported from 135 different donors, came in the 72 hours between June 25 and June 28, according to the list of donations. Another chunk came in the days following, with several on July 1.
More than a third of the $1.7 million came from three hemp companies: Orlando-based Ciaccio Enterprises, which donated $250,000; California-based Torch Enterprises, which donated $250,000; and Fort Lauderdale-based Mellow Fellow or Arvida Labs, which donated $150,000. Other major donors included Lifted Liquids, based out of Wisconsin, and Outpost Brands LLC, based out of Daytona Beach, each of which gave $100,000. Ciaccio Enterprises and Arvida Labs were both major organizers in the group chat. It is unclear whether Torch Enterprises was involved; its co-founder agreed to speak but then did not call back or return follow-up calls.
Hemp group chat leaders kept a running tally of who had donated, a list that lines up with what the party reported in August.
“Torch came through like always in the clutch. $250,000,” wrote Ernie Ciaccio, who went by the alias “King Bubs” in the group chat, at one point after Torch sent its donation. Ciaccio is behind Ciaccio Enterprises and Honest PP&D, one of the country’s largest manufacturers of hemp products.
The Florida Healthy Alternative Association, a pro-hemp group, also donated $10,000. The FHAA’s lobbyists are also members of the Republican Party’s executive staff, including its party chair, Evan Power, who acknowledged meeting with people from the hemp industry prior to the group chat but described the meetings as routine.
Though the rough estimate of donations reported appears lower, hemp executives like Ciaccio say the group surpassed its goal of raising $2 million. It is unclear whether the discrepancy is due to some donors not identifying themselves as part of the hemp industry or if the numbers reported are actually below that amount.
In response to questions about the money raised, Ciaccio said in a text that he was out of the country. Asked about the amount raised so far, he added, “I think you’ll see the next report published soon.”
A quid pro quo?
Hemp businesses and leaders of the Republican Party of Florida have all told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that there was no quid pro quo deal. Instead, those in the industry say the effort was their only way to have a voice in politics and compete with Florida’s medical marijuana companies.
“For us it was just having support from someone who supported us,” Arby Barroso, an executive with Arvida Labs, told the Sun Sentinel Wednesday. “… When someone supports you, you support them back. There was no other reason, no hitch to it, it wasn’t like that. It was like ‘wow, this guy saw what is truly going on and the restraints this would’ve done to small businesses in Florida.'”
Yomaira Pineiro, a former State Farm insurance agent, took a risk and started such a business in Tampa when hemp became legal, and says she needs the money to support herself and her young daughter. Her pro-hemp organization, American Hemp Agents, was included in the group chat.
“The only reason the money was brought together was so we can have proper representation in Tallahassee,” she told the Sun Sentinel.
Pineiro said she did not personally donate to the party but volunteers her time in other ways, such as speaking to legislators.
She, Barroso and others in the hemp industry consider themselves the underdogs, fighting efforts to shut hemp out of the market, most crucially the bill DeSantis vetoed. They attribute those efforts to medical marijuana giants, in particular, Trulieve, Florida’s biggest medical marijuana company.
Steve Vancore, a spokesperson for Trulieve, vehemently disagreed with that characterization.
“They’ve been saying we’ve been trying to put them out of business from day one, but it’s a total fabrication,” he said.
Vancore also denied allegations raised by the hemp industry that Trulieve lobbied for the anti-hemp bill that DeSantis vetoed, saying he would “challenge anybody to find a single lawmaker that a representative of Trulieve talked to.”
A Trulieve lobbyist only registered to speak on the bill to try to get an amendment removed that would have affected medical marijuana companies, he said.
Amendment 3
Tensions, already high, have risen even further between the hemp and marijuana industries as they head into the November vote on Amendment 3, the recreational marijuana ballot initiative.
DeSantis and the Republican Party have become increasingly outspoken against the initiative in recent months. It came up frequently in the group chat and helped spark the flurry of donations to the party.
“Here’s the reality, if Amendment 3 goes through, all the Hemp businesses in Florida that sell intoxicating products are toast,” one message read. “So literally, we need to get the 10,000+ small business and 100,000+ employed to go out and vote NO, and to tell all their friends, family, etc to do the same.”
The ballot initiative has already received at least $70 million from Trulieve over the last two years, which has largely bankrolled the campaign behind the amendment. And it is fiercely opposed by top Republicans like DeSantis and many in the hemp industry, who fear losing business to recreational weed, particularly due to how the amendment is written, without provisions for home growing and allowing only existing medical marijuana companies to receive the first licenses.
“For us it’s honestly about the plant itself,” Barroso said. “We’d love for it to be legalization in the state of Florida. Our fight’s not with that or anything else. Our fight’s really with the way they wrote up the ballot.”
Barroso also believes that, if Amendment 3 passes, the anti-hemp bill that DeSantis vetoed this year is more likely to be revived.
While Pineiro takes issue with the amendment, she doesn’t see the fundraising for the Republican Party as targeting it so much as forming an alliance.
“Every industry donates to parties,” she said. “The reason why they donate is to help create alignment. ‘Hey, we wanna be a better industry, can we work with you?'”
Power, the Republican Party chair, did not respond to multiple calls or texts, but had said in July that the money coming in aligned with when the party began ramping up campaigning efforts; the GOP spent close to $4 million in the same reporting period, much of it on campaigning. It’s unclear how much of that money, if any, went to anti-Amendment 3 efforts.
The fight is only ramping up as November approaches. But the hemp industry’s next moves may not unfold over WhatsApp. In the month since the frantic effort, the group chat has largely died. Instead, hemp leaders have turned to calls with store owners and passing information from business to business.
“We’re a pretty tight-knit community,” Barroso said. “We’re trying our best to stay alive.”
