Category DeSantis way behind in the Polls

Jan 23 2024

Final Thoughts on DeSantis: The One-Way Ticket Few Realized He Carried


Posted originally on the CTH on January 23, 2024 | Sundance

The most common refrain from frustrated Ron DeSantis supporters has been, ‘why didn’t he just wait until 2028’? 

With the exception of a small group of political followers in the State of Florida, few people really understood what the DeSantis 2024 operation was all about.

Ron DeSantis ’24 began long before people were paying attention.  It started when the top echelon of the GOPe UniParty saw candidate Donald Trump win the November 2016 election.

In January 2017, when the DC stop Trump operation known as Trump-Russia took on a new direction, the Republican apparatus was just as much in opposition to the Trump presidency as the Democrat wing.

The Republican politician exodus from Congress in 2018 wasn’t accidental, nor was the weak effort of the GOPe to win congressional seats in that 2018 midterm election.

Given the elements of the ‘stop Trump’ effort, the House of Representatives was part of the overall ‘stop Trump’ design.   House Speaker Paul Ryan didn’t announce his retirement in ’18 ahead of the midterm accidentally; he made the announcement because he knew the Republican leadership’s plan.

Ron DeSantis left Congress, along with Paul Ryan, because Ron DeSantis was going to run for the Florida Governor seat as part of his career move.  The people around DeSantis who supported his political career (Ryan, Bush, approved Republican types), along with the Club4Growth (David McIntosh), helped guide DeSantis with the proactive planning.  The run for governor in ’18 was always done with the expectation and plan to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

Here’s the key point.  DeSantis was always going to run for the Republican Party nomination in 2024.  There was never a consideration not to do so.  He ran for governor in 2018 specifically to set up the run for the Republican nomination in 2024.  That was always the plan.

If President Trump won the 2020 election, DeSantis was positioned to run in 2024.  If President Trump lost the 2020 election, DeSantis was positioned to run in 2024.  DeSantis was going to run in 2024; not running was not an option.  Start from that baseline and everything that took place during his tenure as Florida governor then starts to make a lot more sense.

The professionally Republican DeSantis operation always contained the need to co-opt the MAGA Trump movement.

Just like the Tea Party was infiltrated and diminished back to the control of the GOPe in 2012, so too was the plan to infiltrate MAGA and take control in 2024.  This is the reason why DeSantis ran in 2018 to mirror the Trump agenda.   Winning Florida via overt and very public support for President Trump was part of the design.

The policy agenda of Ron DeSantis was then structured to mirror the priority of the MAGA base.  This was pure strategic and political maneuvering, not a fundamental or ideological alignment in common belief with the priorities of the Trump voter.

Again, begin with the end in mind.  The end goal was always DeSantis ’24.

What Florida voters saw unfold in 2021/2022 (social policy nods to create bonafides) was precisely the DeSantis goal to create a MAGA image where the Florida governor would be the torchbearer for the MAGA standard.  However, quietly behind DeSantis was the originating establishment old guard.

In December of 2021, a full 17 months prior to the May 2023 official announcement, the invitation to the “conservative influencers” was dispatched.  Christina Pushaw was now part of the DeSantis ’24 operation, and she organized the January 6, 2022, meeting (pictured below) for that exact purpose.

This January 2022 preparation was why the people in the photograph were so sensitive about the “invitation” when questioned.

If ordinary voters, MAGA people, realized in early 2022 that Ron DeSantis was recruiting “influencers” for the campaign that was scheduled to begin a year later, it would be a risk.  The hidden agenda behind the operation would potentially be exposed.  The denials about this organization were extreme, and the ridicule over such a simple question was a “telling” indicator.

By the time the calendar took us to mid 2022, the visible datapoints all went in one direction.  The activity indicated DeSantis was going to run for the presidency in 2024, because, well, quite simply, Ron DeSantis was going to run for the presidency in 2024.  It was going to happen, and everything taking place was being done with this in mind.

The advanced scheduling was done with the 2024 campaign as the baseline.  The legislative effort was constructed with the need for policy accomplishments to support the 2023 announcement.  Everything, from the moment Ron DeSantis stepped into office as the Florida governor, was predicated on his prior agreement with the professional Republican apparatus to run for the GOP nomination in 2024.

This is why the Republican Governors Association gave DeSantis $20,000,000.00 in 2022.  The plan was for DeSantis to transfer the funds to his 2024 campaign, and the RGA was seeding the money in 2022 because they could not do it after he made the announcement in 2023.

It was being done by design, following the originating plan.  No one would question the $20 million, even though he didn’t need it, in a reelection year.  Also, the RGA could not be seen as putting a finger on the scale for the GOP nomination; so it needed to be done early by design.

The professionally Republican elements, including the DC leadership team, knew Ron DeSantis was going to run for the nomination in 2024.  This is the same DC leadership team that supports the removal of MAGA, just like that same leadership team supported the elimination of the Tea Party who were very effective at removing UniParty members through the primary process in 2010 and 2012.  Lessons were learned, now the playbook was being duplicated.

The DC leadership team also knew the DOJ team was going to raid Mar-a-Lago.  After all, the National Archives was working in the background with the DOJ to formulate the justification for the raid.  DC doesn’t keep secrets like this very well and the politically connected knew what was going to happen in advance.

This is the explanation for why the team around Ron DeSantis scheduled his time in the bunker (5 days) to coincide with the ‘shock-and-awe’ FBI raid.

The goal was to hunker down, watch the DOJ/FBI drop bombs on candidate Trump, then have Ron DeSantis emerge from the bunker in Mid-August 2022 with a national endorsement tour, soon to be followed by a soft national campaign kickoff under the guise of a “book tour.”

Hiding this advanced scheduling is why the DeSantis legislative team changed the state rules/laws for tracking the Florida Governor’s travel details.  They left nothing to chance.  The ruse needed to be maintained.  Sunlight, even in hindsight, was/is a real threat.

When you start looking with this specific retrospective in mind, then suddenly there is clarity surrounding the hubris exhibited by everyone in the DeSantis camp, including Casey DeSantis.

Ron left Congress in 2018 to advance his career and position himself for the 2024 GOP nomination.   Waiting and running in 2028 was never an option, because running in 2024 was always the original plan.  It wasn’t only a grossly inflated sense of self-importance that drove the decision, although that has always been a character trait of Ron DeSantis, the 2024 race was the original plan supported by every member of the pro-DeSantis team.

Once you realize the reality of Ron and Casey’s one-way ticket, then you start to recognize how cunning and deceitful they are.   It is not coincidental that cunning and deceptive are also the adjectives used to describe the DC Republican establishment.

Many people were fooled by this establishment Republican plan; but then again, many people were previously fooled by all the professional Republican mask wearers…. So don’t feel bad if you were tricked by the duplicity.

After all, it was not that long ago when Senator Jeff Sessions was the widely espoused “most conservative” member of the upper chamber….

  …How did that work out for us?

Jan 22 2024

DeSantis Out


Posted originally on the CTH on January 21, 2024 | Sundance

Ron DeSantis has dropped out of the 2024 Republican primary.

The career diminished Florida Governor is trying to save face and has endorsed Donald Trump.  The announcement comes at 02:20 of the video below. WATCH:

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The next few days will be fraught with demands to unite the clans.  However, please remember the proven and demonstrably accurate axiom:  Never Trust a Never Trumper. 

The Ron DeSantis campaign was built upon a foundation of fraud. Long planned as an effort to destroy the threat that MAGA represents to the Republican apparatus, nothing about the DeSantis campaign was grassroots, authentic, natural or real.  The Sea Island organized campaign was a specific and detailed approach driven by the professional political class.  Ron DeSantis was a vessel, a willing vessel, for the deliberate schemes and Machiavellian intents of the worst elements in USA Republican politics.

WE CANNOT UNITE with that group.  Think about it.

Supporters of Ron DeSantis either knew of the Never Trump intents, or they were not smart enough to see the supernova flares of manipulation that were triggered from the outset.  Either way, cunning or stupid, I do not want to camp with them.  It is what it is.

Take the endorsement and carry on.

Ron and Casey will be divorced within two years.

Jan 21 2024

REPORT: DeSantis Campaign Looking for a Fat Lady


Posted originally on the CTH on January 20, 2024 | Sundance 

Help Wanted

WHO: Fat Lady
WHERE: South Carolina
WHEN: Soon
WHAT: Sing

According to numerous meatball sources, somebody sneezed.  DeSantis has cancelled Sunday media appearances. It looks like the end is nigh, Armageddon is at hand, it’s over, the drain is circled, a fat lady is needed…

Via DAILY MAIL – […] DeSantis has also in recent days dwelt publicly on the sentiment among Trump supporters he met on the campaign trail, and their pledge to vote for him in the next cycle.

Speaking on Tuesday in South Carolina, DeSantis said that Trump voters in Iowa had told him they would support him in four years.

‘They were coming up to me saying, “We want you in 2028, we love you, man,” he said.

He told a similar story on NBC News.

‘I had people come up to me saying, “I love you, man. I’m going to do Trump this time and you next time,”‘ he said.

‘That’s not what I wanted to hear, but being there we did make an impression and it’s important.’ (read more)

(Via New York Times) – After a humbling loss in Iowa, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is starting to signal that he is building an off-ramp from the race for the Republican presidential nomination, a seeming acknowledgment of his dim prospects of defeating Donald J. Trump given his low poll numbers in New Hampshire and South Carolina.

So far this week, Mr. DeSantis has cast his eyes forward to 2028 with anecdotes about Trump supporters saying they would vote for him next time around if he runs again in four years. He has conceded that Mr. Trump’s thumping victory in Iowa on Monday made for a “good showing in terms of him winning the nomination.” And he has openly admitted that he believes he made a strategic mistake by icing out the traditional media earlier in the campaign.

It all amounted to a kind of frankness that Mr. DeSantis has not always shown in his public comments about the nominating contest — and a marked change in tone for a candidate who spent most of last year brashly promising he would win Iowa, which he lost by 30 points.

On Thursday, the conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt asked Mr. DeSantis if his campaign would survive through the end of March. The Florida governor replied that things were not necessarily going to plan. (read more)

Come for the Great MAGA King, you gotta get through the MAGA tribe first!!

Not happening !

Jan 16 2024

After Visiting All 99 Iowa Counties and Failing to Win a Single One, Ron DeSantis Declares Victory “We Got Our Ticket Punched”


Posted originally on the CTH on January 16, 2024 | Sundance 

After visiting all 99 counties in Iowa and failing to win a single one, specifically because he visited all 99 counties in Iowa, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared the dark, unknown and mysterious forces of universe tried to stop him, “threw everything at him,” yet he alone stands victorious.

Yeah, he actually said that.

The DeSantis campaign put most of their resources into Iowa and gained a total of 23,000 votes (roughly 21%), quickly declaring victory in a tenuous 2nd place finish and proclaiming their victory ticket has been punched.  The cognitive disconnect is exceptionally strong; but hey, everyone has a role to play – right?  WATCH:

IOWA – DeSantis took the stage for a few minutes at a campaign party in West Des Moines after he secured second place.

“Because of your support, in spite of all of that they threw at us, everyone against us — we’ve got our ticket punched out of Iowa,” he said.

DeSantis spent millions in the Hawkeye State, visited all 99 counties and cultivated the endorsements of popular Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds. Never Back Down, the super PAC supporting his candidacy, also spent more than nine months building a ground game and appointing 1,600 precinct captains across the state. (MORE)

Jan 16 2024

Ron DeSantis Campaign Very Upset – Accuse Media of “Election Interference” for Calling Race for President Trump


Posted originally on the CTH on January 15, 2024 | Sundance

Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley are locked in a tight race for the coveted first-loser title.  However, the DeSantis campaign is very upset with the media for declaring President Trump the Iowa winner.

[Story Here]

Big sad.

Tonight, all the Ron DeSantis conscripts, and paid influencers start to realize there’s not going to be any income potential for them in a few weeks.  It’s a cold look in the mirror when “learning to code” applies to your collapsed career.

Jan 16 2024

The Ron DeSantis Closing Message to Iowa is a Perfect Encapsulation of Ron DeSantis


Posted originally on the CTH on January 15, 2024 | Sundance 

I doubt this guy is going to come in second place, maybe third; yet there’s a possibility he could even drop to a devastating fourth.  The short answer about why is in this closing message.  The Florida governor shows who he is.

Giving his closing message to Iowa voters, Ron DeSantis attacks Donald Trump by saying, “if you kiss the ring, he’ll say you’re wonderful.  You can be the strongest, most dynamic successful Republican and conservative in America, but if you don’t kiss that ring, then he’ll try to trash you.”  This comes after Ron DeSantis was desperate in 2018 and likely to lose the Florida governor race to a drug fueled porn addict, so his team begged Donald Trump for assistance.

American voters are not stupid.  The labeling and attacking do not work when it is full of fraud, sanctimony and hypocrisy.  That said, this is also why DeSantis has very few friends and even fewer endorsements amid those in the Florida delegation who know him best. WATCH:

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You know what the strange thing is…. I doubt strongly that Ron DeSantis has any idea just how much damage he has done to himself with this campaign.  The echo-chamber around DeSantis is so necessarily isolating, only after he drops out will he personally begin to absorb just how small, pathetic and insignificant he has become.

Jan 14 2024

LOL – Ron DeSantis Presented a Participation Trophy in Iowa


Posted originally on the CTH on January 13, 2024 | Sundance 

This is more than a little funny.  The stuff people do can just make you laugh out loud sometimes.

Some guy interrupts Ron DeSantis as he begins to start his remarks at a campaign event to present the Florida governor with an actual participation trophy.  It took a few seconds for people to realize DeSantis was being trolled.  Making matters all that much funnier, Casey DeSantis eventually plays the role of security and stands between Ron and the guy with the trophy.  WATCH:

Ouch, what this guy did was brutal; however, the reality of the Iowa situation makes his snarky trolling that much more effective.

Team Ron DeSantis put all their chips into winning the Iowa caucuses.  They visited all 99-counties and spent more time in Iowa than any other candidate.  However, all of that effort exhausted, all of that money spent, all of that strategic planning and DeSantis is now in third place and likely to get beaten by Nikki Haley for the first-loser trophy.

[DATA HERE]

Dec 22 2023

Ron DeSantis Claims to Be the Victim of the Deep State Attack Against Donald Trump


Posted originally on the CTH on December 21, 2023 | Sundance

This guy really is a piece of work.  During a CBN interview, DeSantis was asked about the politically motivated DOJ attacks against President Donald Trump.  Within his response, the Florida governor found a way to make himself a victim, claiming the persecution of Trump skewed the GOP primary race and hurt the other candidates. WATCH:

As the career light dims to a slow fade away in the corner of DeSantis’ eye, it remains important to keep focus on why this catastrophic collapse was beneficial to the MAGA movement.

DeSantis had no option but to run in this ’24 race, because that was the design going back to when he left Congress in 2018.  However, we dodged a bullet, because Ron would have likely been a shoo-in for 2028 if the Sea Island multinationals had chosen to play the Nikki Haley card first.

If there’s one lesson to be learned in all of this, it would be to remind ourselves that the GOPe club never stops working on the illusion of choice.

December 21, 2023 | Sundance

Dec 17 2023

Jeff Roe Resigns from Ron DeSantis Super PAC After Staff Leaks Massive Turmoil Amid Campaign Collapse


Posted originally on the CTH on December 16, 2023 | Sundance 

Following a scathing insider report of the turmoil within the campaign and SuperPAC for presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, chief strategist Jeff Roe resigns.

It is stunning to contemplate the starting point of $269,000,000.00 [and more since] has essentially done nothing except destroy the public image and brand of Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis.   No presidential campaign has ever amassed such a proactive funding war chest and blown it to smithereens before the first votes have even taken place.

Never Back Down Super PAC Chief Strategist, Jeff Roe, delivered the following statement via Twitter:

The Washington Post presented a scathing report [SEE HERE] outlining details provided by 22 people in the DeSantis campaign and Super PAC.   Within hours of that report being posted, Jeff Roe quit.

WaPo – […] With just weeks to go before the Iowa caucuses, the experiment is now in tatters. The super PAC that funded almost all of the DeSantis advertising and field programs and much of the candidate’s travel and events has been sidelined by the people that created it.

[…]  Five senior officials have left Never Back Down since late November. Three officials with Roe’s firm were fired, and the board chairman and the founding chief executive both resigned, amid internal concerns about legal compliance. A verbal conflict from inside the group’s Atlanta offices became public, as did DeSantis’s own misgivings about the outside group’s leadership. The governor and his campaign staff have been frustrated by reporting on the drama around Never Back Down and critical of the group’s ad strategy, with DeSantis’s second campaign manager, James Uthmeier, publicly instructing donors to give elsewhere for TV ads.

Rather than a new playbook for presidential campaigns, the broader DeSantis project has exposed the dangers of depending on emerging loopholes in campaign finance law that allow candidates to turn over traditional election efforts to groups that can take donations of any size from corporations or individuals.

“The super PAC model of winning a presidential primary, I think, is staggering, if not on the ropes,” said one DeSantis donor. “And if you’re going to have a successful presidential primary campaign you need to be able to raise hard dollars.”

[…] On Saturday, a top official at Never Back Down elaborated on the firings in a statement that for the first time publicly suggested their rationale. “Following mismanagement and conduct issues, including numerous unauthorized leaks containing false information, senior officials were terminated,” said Never Back Down chairman Scott Wagner. “We don’t have time to indulge false narratives from those with ulterior motives.”

The Post asked employees for a response. A lawyer for the employees then contacted Wagner claiming his assertions were categorically false and he revised his statement, replacing the first sentence with: “Following some opinions regarding mismanagement and conduct issues, including some who believed there appeared to be numerous unauthorized leaks containing false information, NBD and some senior officials parted ways. ”

A representative for the three former employees declined to comment Saturday.

Three people familiar with the super PAC’s decision-making described reasons for suspecting the three fired officials of wrongdoing, but the organization did not provide clear evidence implicating them. Two other people familiar with the inner workings of the group said they are not aware of proof.

[…]  Still, some in DeSantis’s orbit are holding out hope for a comeback. During his first campaign for governor, DeSantis won despite shaking up his team late in the race.

“Clearly, we are underperforming. Clearly we haven’t lived up to the billing. But I do think this adaptive behavior is going to produce better results in the end,” said Dan Eberhart, a DeSantis donor. “Clearly, Haley has some momentum nationally. Clearly, Trump is lapping the field. But I think he’s got an underdog’s chance at pulling off a humongous upset.” (read more)

The DeSantis loyalists promise to keep swinging for the fences.  However, everything around their effort was/is built upon fraud, manipulation, deceit and astroturf.  This outcome should not come as a surprise to those who have followed along.

Almost everyone in the operation and in the promotion thereof, are retreads from the failed Ted Cruz campaign of 2016.  Someone in professional GOPe circles had the idea to enmesh the Never Trump group with the Bush team and try to build a brand image for Ron DeSantis that could co-opt the MAGA base.

It was a stupid strategy from the outset, made even worse by their tone-deaf missing of reality.  Tens-of-millions of core base voters have their eyes wide open now.  They are not going to destroy the movement, and the collapse of Ron DeSantis just shows how strategically smart the base voter has become.

At a certain point, the pretending hits the sunlight of reality.

Dec 3 2023

Report – Team DeSantis Splitting from Superpac Amid Anger Over PAC Inability to Boost Florida Governor


Posted originally on the CTH on December 2, 2023 | Sundance

There is an interesting report from Politico expanding on the conflict between the campaign of Ron DeSantis and the Never Back Down SuperPAC that was intended to support him.  [SEE HERE]

Essentially, the Politico sources from within the DeSantis operation are claiming the campaign is furious about how the SuperPAC has spent tens of millions, yet the Florida Governor is less supported now than before the campaign launched.  As the article is framed, we are watching the final stages of the DeSantis implosion as a more favored new SuperPAC is launching for a last-ditch effort at rebranding.  That would be reboot 5.0.

That said, I would caution applying too much credit to the actual split, because Ron DeSantis previously deposited his entire leadership and leftover campaign account from his Florida race into the NBD SuperPAC.  DeSantis is stuck with Jeff Roe and Ken Cuccinelli regardless of their incompetence.

(Politico) – Tensions between Ron DeSantis’ struggling presidential campaign and his allied super PAC are boiling over, with the campaign losing confidence in Never Back Down’s leadership and ability to orchestrate a TV advertising campaign, according to two people close to the Florida governor.

The criticism comes amid mounting questions about the strength of DeSantis’ campaign, and that of Never Back Down. The super PAC has suffered two major departures over the last week, with the organization’s CEO, Chris Jankowski, and its chair, Adam Laxalt, stepping down.

Earlier this week, DeSantis campaign manager, James Uthmeier, wrote a memo to donors in which he praised Never Back Down for its field operation and urged the group to focus on that going forward. But he implicitly suggested a newly formed pro-DeSantis super PAC, Fight Right, take the lead on TV advertising. Campaign officials believe the PAC’s TV ads have been ineffective, according to two people close to DeSantis and granted anonymity to speak freely.

“The campaign doesn’t think NBD’s current interim leadership should be within a mile of a TV budget,” said one of the people close to DeSantis. A Never Back Down representative declined to comment.

[…] “The last few weeks have caused the campaign to lose confidence in multiple top NBD officials as a result of poor performance as well as rampant leaking to push false, unauthorized narratives to the press,” the person close to the governor said.

Never Back Down has emerged as the highest-spending super PAC of the presidential campaign so far. According to media buying figures, the organization has spent more than $39 million on advertising. But there has been little evidence the barrage has helped, with DeSantis sliding back for months in public opinion polls. He is not only running far behind former President Donald Trump, but is locked in a battle for second with former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. (read more)

“The wheels on the bus go woomp woomp woomp“…