Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign for the 2024 presidential primary is facing an increasingly uphill battle and could soon come to a screeching halt if a report over the weekend is any indication.
According to The Associated Press, sources informed the newswire that the three “senior officials” at a DeSantis Super PAC left the organization on Saturday, “the latest sign of instability within the 2024 hopeful’s political operation just six weeks before the Iowa Republican caucuses.”
“Kristin Davison parted ways with Never Back Down just after she took over leading the group following the departure of CEO Chris Jankowski less than two weeks ago,” the AP reported, citing sources familiar with the situation.
“Also leaving Saturday was communications director Erin Perrine and director of operations Matt Palmisano, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss Never Back Down’s internal operations. Politico was the first to report Davison’s departure, the AP added.
DeSantis, who won reelection in 2022 by nearly 20 points, handily defeating former GOP governor-turned-Democratic congressman Charlie Christ, has generally maintained second place behind another popular Florida resident and fellow 2024 primary opponent, former President Donald Trump, but has begun to slip into third behind former South Carolina governor and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley in some polls recently.
As for the Super PAC, longtime DeSantis ally Scott Wagner, who had been a board member, was named interim CEO and board chairman, the AP reported.
“Jankowski, who was among those who helped initially conceive of the super PAC’s outsized role, quit on Nov. 22. Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who had been board chairman, left the group on Friday,” the AP noted. “Among some of those close to the situation, the rash of departures is seen as an aggressive step by DeSantis’ loyalists to reassert control over Never Back Down.”
In recent weeks, Trump has appealed for DeSantis and the remaining GOP primary contenders to drop out of the race and unify around him since they are so far behind in polling.
“I think he has to get out for the good of the party. He could have waited, and he would have been the odds-on favorite for ’28, but he didn’t do that. I got him elected. If it weren’t for me, he wouldn’t be governor; he’d be working in a law office right now or doing whatever he was going to do,” Trump claimed in an interview.
In 2018, Trump campaigned for DeSantis, who had served most of his three terms in Congress, before launching his gubernatorial bid.
At the time, the AP reported: “DeSantis, 40, was considered an underdog before Trump tweeted his support for DeSantis in December, a month before he got into the race. Trump campaigned to help push DeSantis to a primary victory in August and came to Florida twice to propel him past Democratic Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum in the final days of the election.”
“He was dead when I endorsed him, he came begging for an endorsement, and when I endorsed him he had a couple of like a rocket ship. One day! One day,” Trump to Real America’s Voice, adding that DeSantis had been down in the polls.
DeSantis won his 2018 election by a razor-thin margin.
“He was losing at a level you would never even believe possible,” Trump added. “I even said, ‘I don’t think that if George Washington came back from the dead if Abraham Lincoln came back from the dead, I don’t think they could help you, Ron, you’re dead.’”
Trump added: “I endorsed him, and he ended up winning easily, and then we got him past the general election, running a then-very hot candidate who Ron didn’t think we could beat, but we beat him. And then three years later. They asked him, ‘Are you gonna run against the president,’ and he said ‘I have no comment.’ And I said ‘Wait a minute, did he say he has no comment? That means he’s running.’”
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