One DeSantis Super PAC Closes Operations, The Second DeSantis Super PAC Pulls Out of Key States
Written by Sundance of The Conservative Treehouse
A very bad, terrible, no good news day for Ron DeSantis today
A $50 million Super PAC scheduled to launch in support of his campaign was forced to abandon all hope after the donors backed out, essentially saying it’s futile. Then, moments later, the Never Back Down super PAC announced they were backing down from Super Tuesday states and halting all door knocking activity in Nevada, California, North Carolina and Texas. The burn rate on cash was too much and no resupply.
I said last year, when few would accept my predication of a DeSantis effort, to settle into an unemotional spectator position, watch DeSantis launch and implode, then watch what happens to the financed influencer campaign as the cash runs out. All of these interests will radically shift once the cash dries up. That’s exactly what is going on right now. Two stories:
(Daily Mail) – A super PAC set up to back Ron DeSantis with $50 million is closing as donors backed out – while its founder said the Florida governor’s campaign was guilty of ‘rookie s**t’ mistakes and he will now back Donald Trump.
John Thomas, a Republican strategist known as the ‘Billy the Kid of Political Battles’ set up ‘Ron to the Rescue’ in November and had secured financial commitments from mega-wealthy donors.
But he said the donors began having second thoughts after the botched DeSantis campaign launch on Twitter Spaces in May. (more)
Meanwhile, the formerly $200 million funded Never Back Down Super PAC, the group that was left carrying the brunt of the DeSantis campaign costs after relaunch, has pulled all major door knocking operations from states. This announcement was more predictable, because we could see the burn rate on NBD being ruinously high.
(Via NBC) – Never Back Down, the super PAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign, has ceased its door-knocking operations in Nevada, home to a key early nominating contest, and California, a delegate-rich Super Tuesday state, officials confirmed Wednesday.
They added that in recent weeks, the group also ended its field operations in North Carolina and Texas, two additional states that vote on Super Tuesday in March.
Never Back Down had pitched a wide-ranging canvassing effort throughout the early nominating states as the centerpiece of its effort to help boost DeSantis in the primary — even letting reporters inside its door-knocking boot camp in Iowa where it trained hundreds of canvassers earlier this year. The super PAC had planned to spend $100 million on the effort.
The decision to fold its door-knocking operations in Nevada and some Super Tuesday states coincides with DeSantis’ rough summer, which has featured him struggling to gain traction against the GOP front-runner, former President Donald Trump, since launching his campaign in late May. In recent weeks, DeSantis’ campaign has publicly promoted resets and staff shake-ups as he seeks to generate momentum. (read more)
Notice, this shift is happening after the first GOPe debate. The shrinking of campaign effort is happening as more people get to know the candidate. This is the structural problem. The more people are exposed to Ron DeSantis, the more his polling support drops.