3. Jeff Roe
Is it all Roe-ver for the DeSantis campaign?
Back when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was winning reelection by 19 points and cashing checks from every major Republican donor in the lower 48, a considerable hubbub was made about the arrangement his prospective presidential campaign had come to with Never Back Down, a pro-DeSantis super PAC guided by prominent Republican operative Jeff Roe. Super PACs can raise unlimited money but aren’t allowed to take instructions from campaigns; campaigns, in turn, can do whatever they want but can only raise $3,300 per individual donor per election cycle. DeSantis ’24, however, decided to let Never Back Down have responsibility for certain activities, like door-to-door canvassing and organizing rallies, that had previously been the domain of campaigns proper. The reasoning, not without its merits, was that Never Back Down would have more to spend on those activities than the campaign would, and that it would be easy enough for the super PAC to take strategy and messaging cues from the campaign by just watching what DeSantis did and said in public. There was a problem, though, which is that voters turned out not to like Ron DeSantis, regardless of who was spending money to promote him. Now, the Washington Post reports, Never Back Down is beset by internal warfare and accusations of misconduct; DeSantis, the Post says, has objected to many of the group’s decisions. Four hours after the Post published its story on Saturday, Roe resigned from his role as the super PAC’s chief strategist; the chair of its board and its CEO have also resigned. With the Iowa caucuses in three weeks, this is kind of like the engine falling out of your race car as you hit the final straightaway. The good news for DeSantis, we guess, is that he wasn’t going to win anything anyway!