Free Republic

By KIMBERLY LEONARD 04/06/2024 09:38 PM EDT HOLLYWOOD, Florida — Ron DeSantis is making nice with his most loyal donors and, at least over the weekend, ignored Donald Trump. During a retreat in South Florida for the governor’s donors that featured golf, cigars and spa time, and little mention of the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, DeSantis thanked and wooed the people who most avidly supported his presidential run. Part of the weekend was also to brainstorm how he could keep Florida front and center in the conservative movement with more than 2 and a half years left as governor. Robert...

PALM BEACH, Fla. (NewsNation) — With dueling events this weekend, some of the nation’s biggest GOP donors will have to choose between former President Donald Trump or former presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Trump is expected to attend a major joint fundraiser between his campaign and the RNC on Saturday. A campaign source confirmed to NewsNation that it will be hosted at a private residence in Palm Beach. Expectations are high for Trump to offset President Joe Biden’s recent $25 million fundraiser, with the Trump campaign anticipating an estimated $43 million fundraising haul Saturday. That’s an effort that could...

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...

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.

Internal polling from backers of Ron DeSantis show the Florida governor gaining ground against primary competitor Donald Trump in the first-in-the-nation primary contest state of Iowa. A new Never Back Down PAC survey shared with Axios has DeSantis closing the gap between frontrunner Trump by 14 percent since his presidential announcement. But when the other candidates were taken out of the equation and DeSantis and Trump were put in a head-to-head matchup, the pro-DeSantis PAC found the two frontrunners are effectively tied in Iowa – compared to the governor's 14-point deficit in mid-May. A new CNN survey conducted the day...

A super PAC supporting Ron DeSantis has a suggestion for Donald Trump.NEVER BACK DOWN is telling the former President that if he doesn’t love Florida, he ought to get as far away as possible.“Donald Trump has so deeply disparaged the state of Florida by calling it the ‘worst state,’ we at Never Back Down will help him leave by offering financial assistance to help him move to his beloved California, so he can be close to his good buddy Gavin Newsom, whom he loves so intensely and gets along with so well.”“The good news is that since so many people...