Category DeSantis Super pack Funding Drys up

Sep 9 2023

After He Camped Out in Iowa with Emphasis, Vote Support for Ron DeSantis Collapses to 14%


Posted originally on the CTH on September 8, 2023 | Sundance 

The Ron DeSantis and Jeff Roe strategy was pretty simple.  Push all other states to lower concentration and focus extremely hard on Iowa.   All resources were shifted into Iowa for Ron DeSantis and the Florida governor almost moved his entire family there to campaign heavily.  DeSantis has promised to campaign in every one of the 99 counties in Iowa.

That said, a weird thing keeps happening.  The more that voters are exposed to Ron DeSantis, the more they pull away from supporting him.

This is something I shared last year when I said DeSantis was going to run this year.

The issue is honesty and authenticity, DeSantis has neither.  As you read this Ron DeSantis is trying out the latest control script against Trump by saying he would have done a better job in the spring of 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic, and he would have fired all of the NIH, CDC, FDA and NIAID health advisors in U.S. government, including Anthony Fauci.

The problem with that campaign talking point is that it’s pure nonsense, and every intellectually honest person knows that.   DeSantis would never have done anything any different, because no one had any concept of what this COVID-19 issue was really all about.  DeSantis is using hindsight and armchair quarterbacking, and that comes out as pure fakery – because it is.  DeSantis has no honesty or authenticity.  That’s not going to change, and Iowa voters are seeing it up close.

The latest polling from Iowa State University shows this problem in real time. [LINK]  AMES, IA — Donald Trump far outpaces other Republican presidential nominees in an Iowa State University/Civiqs poll, which surveyed 1,128 registered voters from Sept. 2-7. The results are the first in a five-part, monthly poll intended to track shifting voter perspectives before the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 15, 2024.

Among the participants, 434 said they “definitely” or “probably” will attend the Iowa Republican Caucuses and identified themselves as Republican or independent. Just over half (51%) of these likely Republican caucus-goers picked former President Trump as their top choice. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis trailed in second place with 14%, followed by former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley (10%) and entrepreneur and political commentator Vivek Ramaswamy (9%). (more)

Sep 1 2023

One DeSantis Super PAC Closes Operations, The Second DeSantis Super PAC Pulls Out of Key States


Posted originally on the CTH on August 31, 2023 | Sundance 

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.