Top Scientology donor emerges as a major contributor to Donald Trump

Before 2019, Patricia Duggan’s wallet spoke volumes — just not about politics.Her then-husband Bob Duggan said in 2016 that he had given $360 million to the Church of Scientology over the years. Since their divorce in 2017, Patricia Duggan has been hailed as the largest single donor to the church. In 2019, the church created a donation distinction just for her: “ Patron of Legend. ”But in recent years, Duggan has expanded her giving into a new area of patronage: conservative politics.Duggan donated at least $74,000 in the three election cycles from 2014 to 2018, listing her address at various places in Pinellas County, campaign finance records show.From 2020 to 2024, her giving skyrocketed.In the most recent three cycles, Duggan donated nearly $22 million to candidates and committees from Florida addresses — including millions to President Donald Trump, hundreds of thousands to causes championed by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and thousands more to Florida congressional Republicans such as U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna and U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, state and federal records show.She gave more than $7 million to Trump’s 2024 election effort — following up on the nearly $9 million she gave pro-Trump groups in the 2020 cycle, according to the Federal Election Commission. In February, Trump appointed Duggan to a seat on the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.According to the nonpartisan campaign finance tracking group OpenSecrets, Duggan was the country’s 66th most prolific political donor during the 2024 election cycle. About 98% of her donations went to Republicans, per the group .The giving comes at a time when the Republican Party has taken positions that track with some of the tenets of the Church of Scientology. For example, Trump’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has expressed skepticism about certain health measures , such as what he describes as the overprescription of antidepressants. The Church of Scientology similarly is highly critical of psychology, psychiatry and psychotropic drugs.There’s no evidence to suggest Duggan’s giving is done on behalf of or at the request of the church. Scientology describes itself as nonpolitical.The church did not respond to a list of questions from the Tampa Bay Times. But in a letter addressed to the news organization, a lawyer said parishioners’ civic participation as private citizens is an exercise of their constitutional rights.“The Church neither directs nor involves itself in the personal political activities of its parishioners,” wrote Rebecca Kaufman, an attorney representing the church. ”Any insinuation to the contrary is false and discriminatory."Duggan could not be reached for comment.The “Make America Healthy Again,” or MAHA, wing of the Republican Party is a relatively recently developed part of the Trump coalition. And it’s brought together skeptics of a wide swath of American health institutions.In 2024, Duggan gave $1 million to the Kennedy-aligned political committee MAHA Alliance, according to federal campaign records.The church and the GOP’s standard bearers do not see eye to eye on every issue. In 2024, Trump supported a Florida constitutional amendment that would have legalized adult use of recreational marijuana. Scientologists do not use “street drugs,” according to the church’s website.Stephen A. Kent, a sociology professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, who studies Scientology, said he thinks it’s difficult to disentangle Duggan’s giving from Scientology’s broader goals: influence and cultural acceptance.Between August and October 2024, Duggan gave a combined $1.8 million to political committees that fought ballot initiatives opposed by Gov. Ron DeSantis on recreational marijuana and abortion , according to state campaign finance records. One of the committees, Keep Florida Clean, was led by Uthmeier, who was then the governor’s chief of staff. In May of this year, Uthmeier, who had been appointed the state’s attorney general, stepped into a debate about whether the city of Clearwater should vacate and sell a portion of a public roadway to the Church of Scientology.A resident-led group had submitted a counterproposal that would have memorialized African American history. The church later withdrew its request after it appeared the Clearwater City Council would not vote in its favor.After the church had withdrawn its request, Uthmeier sent a letter to Clearwater Mayor Bruce Rector, warning against a potentially “unconstitutional” stance against the church.Uthmeier wrote that he learned the city may agree to vacate the land on the condition that the church develops its other properties downtown. He said this would violate a 1978 attorney general opinion, but the Clearwater city attorney has since said it is within the city’s right to attach conditions to the sale.Florida attorney general spokesperson Jae Williams did not answer a question about whether Duggan asked Uthmeier to step into the sale dispute.But Williams, in a statement responding to questions from the Times, thanked Duggan for donating to the political committee that Uthmeier led.“We are grateful that Ms. Duggan supported the effort to protect our state from unrestricted marijuana use in public places,” Williams wrote.Duggan has reached well beyond Florida with her giving. She’s contributed to conservative and libertarian lobbying around the country.The Libertarian National Committee, the governing body of the national party, got $121,300 from Duggan last year, federal records show. The organization works to elect libertarians at all levels of government. She’s also donated to their state affiliates.Duggan donated $10,000 to the Libertarian Party of Hawaii on two occasions — once in October 2024 and again in February 2025, according to federal records.Austin Martin, chairperson of the Libertarian Party of Hawaii, said donations such as Duggan’s make a real difference.This legislative session, Martin’s group was able to testify on nearly 100 issues, 72 of which they saw positive outcomes. That included speaking against tax increases, bans on fireworks and universal vaccinations, Martin said.“We outperformed most of the other lobbying groups,” he said. “It’s really cool that we’ve been able to take things from a much smaller scale.”

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