DeSantis super PAC targets China in new ad: ‘Choose strength, not surrender’

EXCLUSIVE — The super PAC supporting Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) for president in 2024 is out with a new ad addressing the threat posed by China and the Chinese Communist Party, which started running in Iowa and will ultimately run in various media markets.

In the ad, titled “China,” audio of the Florida governor from the second debate is played, when he said, “We need a totally new approach to China. We are going to have real hard power.”

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Never Back Down’s latest ad began running Friday afternoon in Sioux City, Iowa, but will be expanding into other designated media markets in the coming weeks.

DeSantis can be heard in the video explaining the country’s current position as it relates to China is a result of Washington, D.C., elites who “have chosen surrender over strength when it comes to the CCP.”

“Some people have got rich, our industrial base got hollowed out,” he said.

DeSantis added that as president, “we are going to choose strength, not surrender.”

The new ad will be running at the same time as the PAC’s most recent ad hitting former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, called “Dangerous.”

“As Gov. Haley rolled out the red carpet for Chinese companies,” the ad said, cut with footage of Haley speaking as South Carolina governor. “She gave them millions in tax breaks, subsidies, free land.”

Never Back Down further slammed Haley as having “questionable judgment” and being “dangerous on China.”

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“Dangerous” was a $2.5 million ad buy from the PAC, debuting first on 60 Minutes and also airing on Fox News, CNN, and Newsmax, as well as in media markets across both Iowa and New Hampshire.

The new ad on China comes as DeSantis rolled out his foreign policy proposal Friday morning at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. “We are in an age in which we now have a peer competitor, and that competitor is the Chinese Communist Party,” he told listeners, emphasizing the need to focus on China, secure the southern border, and end lengthy and expensive conflicts.