Republican U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis' campaign for Florida governor said Thursday he will no longer accept money from a donor who used the N-word in a tweet about former President Barack Obama.
However, the campaign will not return contributions the donor's company already made because they were already spent on the primary.
Campaign spokesman Stephen Lawson said Thursday that money DeSantis and took from Steven Alembik's company, SMA Communications, was spent before the Aug. 28 primary and the campaign hasn't taken any money from him or SMA since DeSantis secured the GOP nomination to replace Republican Gov. Rick Scott.
The Democratic-affiliated group American Bridge provided a screenshot of Alembik's tweet, in which he used profanity to describe Obama as a Muslim N-word.
"We've said it before, we'll say it again: we adamantly denounce this sort of disgusting rhetoric," Lawson said in an email.
SMA Communications donated $2,000 to DeSantis' campaign and $2,000 to DeSantis' political committee.
Another $11,000 in donations from Alembik and SMA were returned in June, three months before Alembik's tweet. The campaign wasn't sure why the money was returned, but said it was unrelated.
SMA Communications' website lists Ron Desantis' campaign as a client, but DeSantis' campaign said that they have not contracted with SMA.