A political action committee backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the 2024 election is beefing up its staff by placing dozens of employees in the first 18 states on the GOP primary calendar, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
The Never Back Down super-PAC’s plans are the latest sign that DeSantis is planning to formally announce his candidacy in the near future.
“We are ahead of the game in expanding our operations outside of the first four primary states as the energy behind Governor Ron DeSantis to run for President and defeat Joe Biden in 2024 continues to grow,” Erin Perrine, the super PAC’s spokesperson, said in a statement to the AP.
Over the past few weeks, GOP primary polls have shown former President Donald Trump open up his lead over DeSantis to a commanding 40-point advantage. Yet, even as DeSantis lags far behind the former president in polling, donors are still backing him in his bid for the White House.
As USA Today reported, “turbulence in a presidential campaign can cause donors to jump ship,” but there is little evidence donors are fleeing DeSantis en masse.
Never Back Down has already placed about a half-dozen staff in Iowa, which leads off the GOP caucuses, as part of a strategy to get an early start on building out on-the-ground organizing for DeSantis, the AP noted. Usually, those functions are handled by the campaign.
Both Trump and DeSantis are slated to hold competing events on the same day in Iowa, on May 13.
Trump will hold his rally at the Lauridsen Amphitheater Water Works Park, in Des Moines.
“Every promise I made to the people of Iowa, I fulfilled as your President, and even beyond my promises, I got Farmers 28 Billion Dollars from China, money that was unthinkable by anyone else,” Trump wrote in a statement posted on his social media platform Truth Social. “I also saved Ethanol, and did more for Iowa than anyone else in history—and will again!”
The event begins at 2 p.m. and the former president is scheduled to speak at 7 p.m.
