Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ floundering presidential campaign hit new headwinds over the weekend after news broke of a sex scandal and criminal investigation that ensnared his state party chairman and a series of high-level staff departures from his affiliated super PAC.
Summary
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ floundering presidential campaign hit new headwinds over the weekend after news broke of a sex scandal and criminal investigation that ensnared his state party chairman and a series of high-level staff departures from his affiliated super PAC.
- Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, a close personal friend of DeSantis and the 2022 nominee for US Senate in the Silver State, stepped down from his position leading Never Back Down, the affiliated super PAC of the DeSantis campaign.
- Laxalt’s resignation comes one week after Chris Jankowski, the PAC’s CEO, resigned his post. Jankowski’s replacement, Kristin Davison, didn’t even last a fortnight before she “parted ways” with the DeSantis campaign over the weekend.
- New chairman Scott Wagner, a close DeSantis friend, took over the flailing super PAC and quickly cleaned house after Laxalt’s departure. Wagner pledged to focus the PAC’s efforts more on the Iowa ground game rather than television advertisements.
- In Florida, state party chair Christian Ziegler, a DeSantis ally, is now the subject of a criminal investigation after a woman who claims to have been in a menage a trois relationship with Ziegler and his wife accused him of raping her two months ago in her apartment.
- DeSantis quickly called for Ziegler’s resignation, although he has refused to step down. Ziegler’s wife, Bridget, is a co-founder of conservative organization Moms for Liberty.
- The New York Times first reported on Laxalt’s resignation. According to the Times, Laxalt “joined Never Back Down in April, soon after his own campaign ended and before Mr. DeSantis officially joined the presidential race, in a move that was widely seen as Mr. DeSantis and his wife seeking to have someone they trusted monitoring the activities of the well-funded group. He also suffered the unexpected death of his mother over the summer, a friend said.”
- CNN observed that the turmoil roiling DeSantis’ campaign “once again overshadowed the candidate just six weeks before the Iowa caucuses – threatening to upend one of the chief rationales for his candidacy: his ability to govern without the unending drama or chaos that follows former President Donald Trump. The next day, he presented himself as a focused and disciplined candidate, never mentioning the behind-the-scenes political strife.”
- Politico broke the news about the ouster of Kristin Davison for “management and personnel issues.” Never Back Down spokeswoman Erin Perrine and leadership official Matthew Palmisano were also given the boot.
- The New York Post provided more details about the infighting that led up to Never Back Down’s leadership shakeup: “Never Back Down board member and DeSantis confidante Scott Wagner reportedly had to be physically restrained from going after one of the group’s political consultants, Jeff Roe, the founder of Axiom Strategies, during a discussion centered on countering former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s rise in popularity.”
- According to National Review, DeSantis’ internal campaign strife has contributed to his double-digit deficit behind former President Donald Trump in Iowa: “With about six weeks to go, the Florida governor’s odds of overtaking the former president in Iowa next month look longer than ever. DeSantis and his wife have reportedly lost confidence in the Iowa advertising game of the pro-DeSantis super PAC Never Back Down, multiple outlets reported this week, and polling averages show that his campaign has been unable to crack 20 percent of Iowa’s Republican electorate since the summer.”
- Per the Washington Examiner, “the internal problems with Never Back Down are a distraction for DeSantis who will face his rivals on the debate stage Wednesday night and recently finished his tour of all of Iowa’s counties on Saturday. The Florida governor has made winning the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses central to his race against Trump. But with falling poll numbers, a surging campaign from former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, and now new internal problems with his affiliated super PAC, time is nearly running out for DeSantis.”
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© Dominic Moore, 2023
