DeSantis’s drama-free 2024 candidacy threatened by super PAC problems

In the months leading up to Gov. Ron DeSantis‘s (R-FL) announcement he would be running for president, he was portrayed as the candidate most similar to former President Donald Trump but without the drama, chaos, and vitriol.

Two months before he launched his campaign in late May, he bragged about his drama-free leadership at the Heritage Foundation’s Leadership Summit. “We’ve been able to operate an administration that does not get consumed in petty controversy or drama or palace intrigue,” DeSantis said in a subtle dig at Trump. “We basically execute the mission day after day after day.”

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As such, hopes rose that if he were the 2024 nominee, the GOP would be able to satisfy the pro-Trump base of the wing while holding on to weary Republicans who wanted to move past the former president.

But nearly seven months after DeSantis became a presidential candidate, his campaign has failed to overtake Trump and hold back other rivals, including former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. Never Back Down, the super PAC that has acted as a surrogate campaign for the Florida governor, is beset with recent staff resignations and firings that are threatening DeSantis’s efforts to win the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses, the crown jewel of his battle to defeat Trump.

On Saturday evening, Jeff Roe, a chief strategist for the group, resigned after a Washington Post story on Never Back Down’s internal struggles was published, becoming the sixth top official to leave the group in recent weeks.

“I can’t believe it ended this way. I’m so proud to have worked alongside these men and women at NBD 24/7 the past nine months to save the country,” Roe posted on social media.

Five other officials had left or were fired, including two CEOs, from Never Back Down before Roe’s resignation. Trump and his allies were quick to seize on the Roe resignation, with Trump already predicting DeSantis would fail in the primary. “Jeff Roe is out—GAME OVER for DeSanctimonious! #MAGA,” he posted on Truth Social.

Strategists and experts who spoke with the Washington Examiner said that Never Back Down’s problems are a symptom of the Florida governor’s weaknesses as a presidential candidate. They also claimed that the GOP voters are not susceptible to a Trump-like candidate when the former president is on the ballot, further harming DeSantis’s presidential ambitions.

“It definitely undermines kind of the central thrust of his argument as to why him when he got into the race,” said Jason Roe, a Republican strategist who worked on Sens. Mitt Romney‘s (R-UT) and Marco Rubio‘s (R-FL) presidential campaigns, about the super PAC woes. (The Republican strategist is of no relation to Jeff Roe.) “And he had a very strong record in Florida. But I think we’ve seen a lot of very effective governors have failed.”

And now, as DeSantis desperately needs attention focused on wooing Iowa caucus voters, his super PAC’s drama is overtaking his onetime persona as Trump minus the baggage. Instead of receiving media attention for his increased attacks against Trump, Never Back Down is taking up headline space, not a positive sign for a candidate who is trailing Trump by double digits in most polls.

“This is not what you want people to be talking about,” Jason Roe said. “You want everyone to believe that Donald Trump is the chaos candidate, and right now you’re the chaos candidate, and that kind of makes Trump not look so bad.”

Never Back Down had originally boasted it would raise more than $200 million in its quest to bolster DeSantis above all his rivals but tensions boiled over as DeSantis continued to fall in the polls, Trump increased his dominance, and Haley began to rise in momentum. Now a second super PAC, Fight Right, is supporting DeSantis’s 2024 bid. The new group is primarily focused on negative ad buys against Haley as she battles DeSantis for second-place status.

“The DeSantis campaign was depending on a very effective and committed super PAC to carry him in the event that he won Iowa and then gained enough traction to try to compete nationally in a short amount of time,” said Matthew Grossmann, the director of the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research at Michigan State University. “And there are signs that that support is waning, then it makes that even less likely to occur.”

Neither the DeSantis campaign nor Never Back Down responded to the Washington Examiner‘s request for comment.

DeSantis is still in second place at 12.4% behind Trump at 63%, according to a RealClearPolitics poll average. But Haley is closing in on the governor at 11.5%. This is a far cry from when DeSantis was polling at 30.1% on March 30, before he was even a presidential candidate.

“The campaign has not gained the traction that it expected to heading into the Iowa caucuses and is obviously nowhere near a coherent plan to topple Trump in the primaries,” Grossmann added, shifting blame from Never Back Down to DeSantis. “And so you can always point to things happening in campaign staff or among campaign supporters, but usually they’re following the downfall rather than causing the downfall.”

Grant Reeher, professor of political science at Syracuse University, told the Washington Examiner that although DeSantis’s problems pale in comparison to Trump’s 91 criminal indictments, the GOP base isn’t ready to abandon Trump just yet.

“Having the turnover in the organization that he’s had is nowhere near the chaos that the disrupter in chief caused both as a candidate and as president,” Reeher said of DeSantis’s aim to be a drama-free Trump. “So in that sense, then that claim is still reasonably valid. I don’t know what it gets him.”

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DeSantis has attempted to keep the focus on his campaigning in Iowa over the weekend on defeating Trump with repeated attacks against the former president’s failures to deliver on conservative promises. But with the super PAC drama and his polling deficit, that message may not resonate well.

“To take the disruption and the chaos out of Trump makes me wonder what is that?” Reeher continued. “It’s like saying … I’m grape juice without grapes. I mean, that is really what the guy is about as a candidate. I mean, that was a major part of his appeal. That’s what drew people in.”