Buying Politicians

Here’s how much Dirty Money Big Sugar gave in Q1 2025

The state’s campaign finance data for the first quarter of 2025 dropped in recent weeks, and it shows — surprise, surprise — that Big Sugar is still giving big bucks, even in an off-election year.

According to the Florida Department of State, sugar interests gave over $675,000 in the first three months of 2025 to statewide candidates and causes — with $653,000, or 97 percent, coming from U.S. Sugar and its subsidiaries.

Another $18,750 came from Florida Crystals and its subsidiaries, $3,000 from the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative, and $1,000 from the New Hope Sugar Company.

As is often the case, PACs — political action committees — got much of this money. US Sugar gave $250,000 to the Florida Chamber of Commerce PAC; Conservatives for a Better Florida got $50,000, and Panhandle Prosperity got $25,000.

Four PACs got $10,000 apiece: Quiet Professionals FL, Government Gone Wild, Conservatives for Good Government, and the Freedom Leadership Fund.

U.S. Sugar also gave $10,000 to the Friends of Joe Gruters and Friends of Corey Simon PACs. The company and its subsidiaries — South Central Florida Express and Southern Gardens Groves Corp. — donated directly to sitting Representatives Debbie Mayfield and James Buchahan, along with candidates Nathan Boyles — an Okaloosa County Commissioner running for the Florida House District 3 seat — and Ashley Perez Biliskov, who is running to replace current House Speaker Rep. Daniel Perez in District 116.

Florida Crystals’ contributions were split between PACs and individual candidates. Floridians for Economic Leadership and the Florida Jobs Alliance each got $5,000, while the Florida Chamber of Commerce PAC and the Southeast Florida Chamber Alliance got $1,875 apiece.

Meanwhile, the company and two subsidiaries, Okeelanta Corp. and Stofin Co. Inc., donated directly to Sens. Ileana Garcia, Jason Brodeur and Corey Simon.

Big money from Big Sugar is nothing new; last year the industry gave more than $5.4 million, state records show. For a look at the Q1 2025 data, click here.

Dirty Money updates

VoteWater is in the process of updating our Dirty Money Project to reflect the latest data. All state-level data has been updated; we’re working on federal Congressional data; and finally we will update county-level data.

Once the updates are complete, all the data will be displayed on our website — and we’ll let you know if we find any particularly dirty “Dirty Money!”