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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...

Governor Ron DeSantis’s chief strategist – Jeff Roe – is being sued by a group of “teachers, families, and businesses” in Nevada over a botched ballot initiative, with a company under his direction allegedly delivering campaign data riddled with bogus, obscene signatures. One bizarre complaint in the lawsuit filed in May is that some of the paperwork provided by Roe’s firm Axiom Strategies even “smelled like bong water”.DeFrauded?The Community Schools Initiative (CSI) hired Vanguard – a “subsidiary or alter ego of Axiom and [Jeff] Roe” – for a Clark County (NV) ballot initiative to “allow cities and municipalities to opt-out...

Ron DeSantis starts off the week with yet more bad news for his campaign, as the first Rasmussen Reports head-to-head since his glitch-ridden campaign launch shows the Florida Governor actually losing support.A like-for-like study released by Rasmussen on Monday morning reveals DeSantis’s February 2023 numbers at 32 percent with likely Republican voters, whereas he slips to 30 percent in the latest, May poll.And while the Florida Governor’s slippage is with Rasmussen’s three point margin of error, former President Donald Trump’s massive spike in support is definitely not. The 45th President rose a whopping 13 points in comparison to February, and...

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis arrived in South Carolina on Friday on the third leg of an early-state swing after receiving news that his disastrous campaign launch saw him lose ground to frontrunner Donald Trump. A new poll shows the former president increased his lead over DeSantis by eight points since early May. The data will be a blow to DeSantis, who last week used an online interview with Twitter owner Elon Musk to enter the race. But glitches on Twitter Spaces meant the event was late starting and listeners were repeatedly kicked out of the feed. A Yahoo News/YouGov of...

Former President Donald Trump increased his lead over Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) to 28-points after the Florida governor officially launched his presidential campaign, a Yahoo News/YouGov found.###As Yahoo News reported:Among potential Republican primary voters — registered voters who identify as Republicans or GOP-leaning independents — Trump now leads the full field of seven declared candidates with 53%. That’s up from 48% in early May, before DeSantis threw his hat in the ring. And DeSantis now lags further behind than he did just a few weeks ago; his 25% is down from 28% in early May.Put another way, DeSantis trailed Trump...

…. “There are Trillions at Stake!” Overall, the New York Times is reporting a campaign support spending plan of more than $200 million. Essentially, these are payments from the billionaire Wall Street donors and multinationals, funneled through the SuperPAC, to influence the ’24 election. The context of the New York Times report sounds accurate. NYT – A key political group supporting Ron DeSantis’s presidential run is preparing a $100 million voter-outreach push so big it plans to knock on the door of every possible DeSantis voter at least four times in New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina — and five...

A long-time Ron DeSantis advisor is “stepping down” from his role with the Florida governor’s presidential campaign political action committee: the ‘Never Back Down PAC’. The news comes one month after The National Pulse revealed that Cox was also a partner at the parent firm of pro-DeSantis pollster, Gp3, also known as ‘POS Strategies’.Cox served as the political director for DeSantis’s reelection campaign just last year, and was described as leading “the strategy and messaging for the super PAC.”A board member for Mitch McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund, Cox’s reason for departure is still unknown, with POLITICO reporter Alex Isenstadt reporting:...

A super PAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' presidential run has raised $500,000 into a separate draft committee that is expected to be transferred directly to his campaign in the coming days The group, "Never Back Down" has been encouraging donors to contribute online to the "Draft DeSantis 2024 Fund," a super PAC created in early March to house money from DeSantis donors until his campaign launch. Super PACs can raise unlimited funds, but they are generally considered expenditure-only, meaning they cannot contribute directly to a candidate. Campaign finance experts called the move "unprecedented" and had mixed reactions on if...

Resume fabrication?Ron DeSantis’ Never Back Down Pac lied about New Hampshire Representative Lisa Smart switching her endorsement from Trump to DeSantis. Smart released a statement Tuesday afternoon stating she supports Donald Trump, not Ron DeSantis for president.Smart’s statement read, “I was so incredibly proud to join many of my colleagues in endorsing President Donald J. Trump last month and my support for him has not changed. I’m dismayed by the games being played by Never Back Down and I will NOT be participating in any activities with Ron DeSantis.”pic.twitter.com/5r6gz50k71— Steven Cheung (@TheStevenCheung) May 16, 2023Trump’s campaign commented on Team DeSantis’...

In late April, Juliet Harvey-Bolia, a Republican New Hampshire state representative, was one of dozens of elected officials whose endorsements former President Donald Trump announced at a packed rally in Manchester. On Tuesday, officials at Never Back Down, the super PAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, said Harvey-Bolia is throwing her support to their guy. She is one of four New Hampshire legislators — the others are Reps. Brian Cole, Lisa Smart and Debra DiSimone — whom Never Back Down identified as flipping from Trump to DeSantis as it rolled out endorsements from 51 lawmakers in the state who signed...

The expense of moving to the new office triggers reporting requirements that mean DeSantis is likely to announce a presidential bid within two weeks. --------------------- It’s moving day in Tallahassee. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' political operation on Monday is moving out of the Republican Party of Florida headquarters, where it has been housed since the end of the 2022 midterms. NBC News first reported the office move was coming last Friday, signaling DeSantis moving toward a presidential campaign, and moving trucks were spotted outside of the Florida GOP building throughout the day Monday. A party official confirmed the trucks were...

The SuperPac supporting Ron DeSantis called Never Back Down, has taken hundreds of millions of dollars from the Wall Street, billionaire, Sea Island, multinational corporation and hedge fund donors. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is injecting another $85 million from his leadership pac in Florida. All told it is the largest single assembly of political cash in the history of presidential campaigning, estimated value well north of $500 million.With all of that in mind, this is the best the communications team can come up with:Now, please do not misconstrue what I am saying. I am not saying these people are just...

CNN and the fake news legacy media were not the only losers last night. President Trump agreed to appear at a CNN town hall in New Hampshire on Wednesday night that turned into a lopsided debate win over CNN host Kaitlan Collins. Trump gave Kaitlan a thorough thrashing. But CNN was not the only loser last night. The DeSantis team posted comments following the debate where they revealed their support for the Democrats and administrative state. The DeSantis team came out in support of” ** politically motivated prosecutions ** FBI-DOJ interference in elections ** lawfare by the FBI, DOJ, CIA,...

Next week, DeSantis will resume his political travel in the next week with visits to Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa. [cut] Speculation about an official kickoff date has been rampant, covering much of the calendar between now and July-4 with potential locations ranging from his childhood hometown of Dunedin, Florida, to somewhere along the Rust Belt where his parents are from. [cut] The circle has expanded out of necessity as DeSantis builds out a nationwide campaign. Never Back Down, a super PAC expected to play an outsized role boosting DeSantis, has beefed up its staff and is already raising money and...

Apro-Ron DeSantis super PAC showed him as former President Donald Trump's replacement in a recent ad. The Never Back Down PAC showed video of a voter putting a "DeSantis for President 2024" on his truck over an old "Trump for President 2016" sticker. "We will be courageous," DeSantis says during the video. "Here I stand. I'm not backing down." According to ABC News, the Never Back Down PAC will start airing ads in the GOP's early-primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina starting next week. The PAC has raised more than $30 million since March. Florida lawmakers...

As Gov. Ron DeSantis continues his tour of Asia, Israel and the United Kingdom, cracks may be emerging in his domestic donor fortress.The latest indications of attrition come from a New York Times article, in which one of the Governor’s biggest backers is said to be “evaluating” the 2024 Primary landscape.According to the Times, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin has been alienated by DeSantis’ framing of the Ukraine war as a “territorial dispute,” in a statement provided to the now-canceled Tucker Carlson show on Fox News. Additionally, the state’s new six-week abortion ban, which DeSantis messaged about tentatively during political speeches,...

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...

Victory Insights found the Florida Governor holding a lead in November. But that's gone now. Gov. Ron DeSantis handily won re-election last cycle. But a new poll shows he may lose his home state in a GOP Primary for President against Donald Trump. Victory Insights, a polling firm with a presence in Naples, found Trump beating DeSantis both within a wide field and in a head-to-head matchup. Among likely GOP Primary voters, Trump comes out on top in a crowded field with almost 43% of the vote, while DeSantis lands at just under 35%. Author and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy pulls...

DeSantis led Trump as recently as January, but the trend since is against the Governor. Donald Trump continues to stretch his lead over Ron DeSantis in the Lone Star State. A survey conducted between March 30 and April 2 by CWS Research and commissioned by the Defend Texas Liberty PAC finds the former President is supported by more than half of those surveyed, with more than double the support of the Florida Governor, who still is his nearest competition. Fifty-two percent of the 1,067 likely voters in the 2024 Republican Primary say they back Trump, with just 20% claiming to...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ team is already plotting out a strategy to run against Donald Trump for the long haul. The plan focuses less on making a quick splash in places like Iowa or New Hampshire and more on outlasting the former president in a battle for Republican convention delegates. Even though it’s early and DeSantis isn’t officially a candidate yet, in talks behind the scenes, an expanded map is viewed as one of the keys to victory, three sources close to the governor said. “There have been multiple conversations about delegates and how they are picked in various states...