It's also worth noting that prior to his 2022 run for Governor he was kind of an unimportant fringe figure in the state GOP. Republican leadership in the state legislature hated him and stripped him of committee chairmanship after various public feuds, including over pushing too hard on the election fraud craziness.

He probably wasn't seen as important enough to influence, he was just another rank and file Republican who got the standard donation. Of course once Republican primary voters handed him the nomination in 2022, Republicans fell in line because that's what they always do.

Doesn't look like the NS fund posted their contributions for 2022 yet...