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Over the weekend, a Washington Post report detailed chaos within DeSantis’s super PAC, Never Back Down. Hours later, a top strategist left the operation — just four weeks before voting kicks off in Iowa with what might be the most critical contest for the Florida governor. A complaint filed Monday by the nonprofit watchdog Campaign Legal Center also alleges DeSantis “illegally coordinated” with the super PAC and that Never Back Down went against an “explicit legal requirement that super PACs must remain ‘independent.'” “DeSantis was strongest months ago. The fact is: Sunshine has not been his friend,” Seitchik said, arguing...

Asked for his thoughts about the resignation of Jeff Roe from Never Back Down over the weekend, DeSantis told reporters, “I’m not involved in any of that.” “As you guys know, it’s a separate entity and so it’s just … this stuff just happens, and it’s not in my purview of what’s out there,” DeSantis continued. He later added, “It’s not a distraction for me … I know media may want to do it but at the end of the day, I’m focused on the mission.” Roe’s resignation from Never Back Down came hours after a Washington Post report shared...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis broke campaign finance law by communicating about TV spending decisions with a big-dollar super PAC that is supporting his Republican bid for the White House, a nonpartisan government watchdog group alleged in a complaint filed Monday. The Campaign Legal Center cited recent reporting by The Associated Press and others in the complaint, which was filed with the Federal Election Commission. It alleges that the degree of coordination and communication between DeSantis’ campaign and Never Back Down, the super PAC supporting him, crossed a legal line set in place when the Supreme Court first opened the door...

Jeff Roe, longtime Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) consultant and chief architect of his flailing political operation, resigned Saturday from the super PAC charged with realizing the governor’s increasingly quixotic presidential aspirations. Roe announced his departure hours after a damning Washington Post report on the collapse of Never Back Down (NBD), the super PAC Roe conceptualized to send DeSantis to the White House and usher in a new era of super PAC-driven presidential campaigns. The Post report comes after five senior officials, pre-dating Roe’s departure, left NBD since late November and three others with Roe’s firm were fired. The Post writes...

Jeff Roe, a top strategist for the main super PAC supporting Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign, announced his resignation from the group late Saturday — the latest in a string of departures from the organization.The pro-DeSantis group, Never Back Down, has been enveloped in turmoil in recent weeks. Two weeks ago, it fired three of its top officials, including the super PAC’s chief executive officer. The board chairman, former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, also left, as did the organization’s president, Chris Jankowski.Republican strategist Phil Cox, a longtime DeSantis ally and adviser, has stepped in to help steer the PAC in...

Good Times · Chic (1979)

The top strategist for the embattled super PAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ' campaign for the White House resigned Saturday night in the latest sign of trouble for the GOP hopeful less than one month before voting begins with Iowa’s kickoff caucuses. Jeff Roe, the top adviser to Never Back Down, is the latest senior staffer to exit Never Back Down, which has been the largest outside group supporting DeSantis’ candidacy. The Associated Press reported earlier this week on growing concern among some within DeSantis’ operation that interactions between his campaign and his network of outside groups were blurring...

Concerns regarding the DeSantis campaign’s coordination with the pro-DeSantis Super PAC Never Back Down–which has come under scrutiny in recent months as DeSantis fails to make a dent in former President Donald Trump’s lead in the Republican primary race–are increasing.There have been reports of infighting within Never Back Down and tensions between the PAC, which has spent $43 million on ads this year, and the campaign as DeSantis has failed to make any dent at all in Trump’s lead since the governor’s May launch.A September post in Vanity Fair details how Never Back Down’s chief Jeff Roe and the DeSantis...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had only moments earlier departed a Saturday celebration marking his completion of a 99-county tour of Iowa – a feat he has hyped for months Never Back Down, the super PAC supporting the Republican’s White House bid, abruptly let go three key senior staffers that evening, including an interim CEO who had just been installed nine days earlier. The sudden departures sent shockwaves throughout DeSantis’ political operation, from Tallahassee to Des Moines. The next day, he presented himself as a focused and disciplined candidate, never mentioning the behind-the-scenes political strife. In a statement to CNN, deputy...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Three senior members of a super PAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis left the group on Saturday, the latest sign of instability within the 2024 hopeful’s political operation just six weeks before the Iowa Republican caucuses. Kristin Davison parted ways with Never Back Down just after she took over leading the group following the departure of CEO Chris Jankowski less than two weeks ago. Also leaving Saturday were communications director Erin Perrine and director of operations Matt Palmisano, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss Never...

Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt (R) has stepped down as chairman of the pro-DeSantis super PAC Never Back Down, according to a spokesperson from the group. “After nearly 26 straight months of being in a full-scale campaign, I need to return my time and attention to my family and law practice,” Laxalt wrote in a Nov. 26 letter to the group’s board, according to a letter obtained by the Times. Laxalt added he is still supporting DeSantis’s 2024 presidential bid.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will meet this week with high-dollar Republicans to try to cement their support for the newest political action committee supporting his presidential bid, his campaign manager, James Uthmeier, wrote in a memo on Monday morning. Back Down, the super PAC which has bankrolled much of DeSantis' sprawling ground work in early voting states like Iowa and has hosted the governor for dozens of events there. In a fraught moment earlier this month that was first reported by NBC News, two board members from Never Back Down nearly got into a physical fight during a private meeting...

Tensions are rising and tempers are flaring among backers of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as the governor’s presidential campaign continues to fail in its efforts to trounce former President Donald Trump. Leaders of the pro-DeSantis Never Back Down super PAC reportedly met in November to discuss the dire state of affairs for the presidential hopeful, as former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley ramps up her efforts in Iowa and New Hampshire — dropping $10 million — in hopes of improving her standing in the polls. [CUT] “You have a stick up your ass, Scott,” Never Back Down chief Jeff Roe...

Chris Jankowski stepped down Wednesday, just days after a brawl nearly broke out at one of the super PAC’s group strategy meetings as the Sunshine State governor has sunk in GOP primary polls. 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. The Florida governor and his wife, Casey DeSantis, have grown increasingly frustrated with Never Back Down’s leadership, according to the outlet. The super PAC is no longer running ads in Iowa amid concerns that voters...

Chris Jankowski, the CEO of the PAC that has been footing the bill for much of DeSantis' bus travel around key battleground states, stepped down Wednesday, days after a group of other DeSantis allies announced the creation of a separate PAC, called Fight Right Inc. The move follows an account of vicious infighting between factions of DeSantis backers, NBC reported. Jeff Roe, the leading consultant for Never Back Down, reportedly got into a 'heated' argument with DeSantis advisor Scott Wagner during a budget meeting. a source told the network, in a stunning account of how the two men 'nearly came...

Leaders of Ron DeSantis' Never Back Down super PAC met privately last Tuesday to hash out a strategy for fighting Nikki Haley's rise. Instead, two of them nearly came to blows with each other. The infighting represents an escalation in the long-running war between Never Back Down's professional political operatives and DeSantis’ Tallahassee-based inner circle over who is to blame for the governor’s failure to compete effectively with frontrunner Donald Trump for the Republican nomination. And, after tempers flared at last week's meeting, three close DeSantis allies — David Dewhirst, Jeff Aaron and Scott Ross — launched a second super...

'I think there's got to be something different for people to see that heart of yours.' In Iowa Saturday, Ron DeSantis heard from a supporter who suggested his campaign wasn’t successfully showing his “heart,” laying the blame on “consultants” as he questioned whether the Florida Governor could win the Presidency. During an event in Muscadine, which was hosted by the Never Back Down super PAC, the 2024 presidential candidate was confronted with criticism of how the DeSantis message is delivered. “I don’t know what your consultants are telling you, and it’s good for me to be here today to see...

The Republican National Committee (RNC) threatened to prevent GOP presidential candidates from taking part in future party-sanctioned debates if they engaged in an open-press event in Iowa next week, drawing backlash from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Prior to the agreement over the format of the forum, in an Oct. 28 letter to the respective presidential campaigns the RNC Counsel's Office said that any candidate who participates in the Nov. 17 Des Moines event would violate their pledge to not participate in non-RNC-sanctioned primary debates. "The Forum is NOT a debate," he wrote in a post to X. "Thus, the RNC...

Hotel magnate and aerospace entrepreneur Robert Bigelow—who gave $20 million to a pro-Ron DeSantis super PAC in March—is now criticizing the Florida governor’s presidential campaign, hinting to the Financial Times he might throw his support behind Donald Trump, who leads among candidates for the Republican presidential nomination. Bigelow pointed to Hamas’ attack on Israel as a reason why he might shift his support to Trump, telling the Financial Times in an article published Wednesday the U.S. needs a strong and “streetwise” leader like the former president. He also told the Financial Times he thinks if Trump—who has been indicted four...

The Trump campaign has trolled DeSantis relentlessly for his super PAC's warning ------------------------------------------------------ LONDONDERRY, N.H. — The top adviser to a super PAC supporting Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign gave the Florida governor 60 days to beat Trump in August. Sixty days later, during a campaign stop in New Hampshire, DeSantis acknowledged that wasn’t a “very smart thing to do.”Never Back Down chief Jeff Roe said in August that DeSantis needed to beat Trump in “the next 60 days,” according to audio from a meeting of Never Back Down super PAC donors. In the months since, the Trump campaign has sent...