Ron DeSantis tours Wichita State’s National Institute for Aviation Research facility

Florida Gov. and Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis toured Wichita State’s National Institute for Aviation Research facility in Park City on Monday morning ahead of a high-dollar Wichita fundraising luncheon.

“Gov. DeSantis was in town today for other business and asked to tour NIAR. He heard about us and wanted to see what we are doing to help the U.S. military sustain its legacy fleet of air and ground vehicles,” Tracee Friess, WSU’s associate vice president of strategic communications and marketing, told The Eagle in an email.

NIAR has worked closely with the U.S. Department of Defense in recent years. In March, the Army awarded the institute a $100 million contract for advancing and modernizing its tank fleet.

After the tour, DeSantis departed to court donors. Tickets for the luncheon started at $3,300 per person, with a VIP reception priced at $6,600 per person.

While Wichita billionaire Charles Koch is spending tens of millions of dollars to oppose former President Donald Trump in the Republican primary, he has not yet endorsed a challenger. The DeSantis campaign and Koch Industries did not respond to questions last week about whether the candidate would meet with Charles Koch while in Wichita.

The DeSantis campaign laid off more than a third of its staff two weeks ago in a cost-cutting measure as the second-place candidate attempts to reset his struggling campaign.

In a New York Times-Siena College national poll conducted in late July, 54% of likely Republican voters say they support Trump, compared to 17% for DeSantis.

DeSantis previously visited Kansas last September to stump for then-Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, the Republican nominee for governor, who Gov. Laura Kelly defeated in November.

DeSantis will hold a similar luncheon in the Kansas City metro area Tuesday.

Contributing: Jonathan Shorman of The Kansas City Star