DeSantis sacks staff as donors look elsewhere

Ron DeSantis sacks a dozen staff from his presidential campaign as he struggles to make up ground on Trump in the Republican primary race, with nervous donors jumping ship.

Insiders believe Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recruited too many staff early in the campaign as he sought to build momentum and cement his position as the leading challenger. Picture: AFP

Ron DeSantis has sacked a dozen staff from his presidential campaign as he falls further behind Donald Trump in the Republican primary race.

Mid-level staff from several departments were fired as DeSantis’s campaign faces unease among donors. The sackings, first reported by NBC News, come after the departures of other senior aides as the Florida governor struggles to make up ground on Trump.

Once seen as the most formidable challenger to Trump for the Republican nomination next year, DeSantis has struggled on the national stage since launching his run for the White House less than two months ago.

The governor of Florida trails Trump by almost 40 points in some national polls and lags far behind the former president in the early battleground states that will define the Republican primary next year. The Morning Consult poll placed Trump on 56 per cent last week, with DeSantis on 17 per cent and the rest of in single digits. The FiveThirtyEight average of Republican polls puts Trump almost 30 points clear.

Trump mocked his rival in a speech on Saturday night, saying DeSantis was “running for a hopeless cause” and that his own lead over the field was now insurmountable. “I don’t know why he’s not here,” Trump told the Turning Point Action Conference in Florida, which drew several candidates but not the governor. “He should be here representing himself.”

Insiders believe DeSantis recruited too many staff early in the campaign as he sought to build momentum and cement his position as the leading challenger. Flush with cash, DeSantis’s campaign had 92 people listed on its payroll during its early weeks, by far the most of any candidate.

Billionaire Republican donors who poured money into the campaign in the hope of ousting Trump are getting nervous, with some believed to be looking to throw their weight behind other candidates.

“DeSantis’s stock isn’t rising,” one donor told NBC News. “Twenty per cent is not what people signed up for.”

Another donor said: “There are people grumbling about it. There is an overall sense that he just has not ignited the way we thought he would.”

Trump claimed in his speech that he was getting phone calls from DeSantis donors who were looking to jump ship. “He’s dropping so quickly he’s probably not going to be in second place much longer,” Trump said.

Despite facing criminal indictments over the classified documents seized at his home in Florida last year and a hush money payment to a porn star, along with other criminal and civil investigations, Trump has extended his lead over recent weeks. Trump said again on Saturday that the primary was in effect over. “Republicans should be using those [campaign] funds to build a state-of-the-art vote-gathering operation to swamp the Democrats,” Trump said. “Instead, DeSanctimonious and his establishment handlers are wasting precious time and resources to divide the party.”

DeSantis attended a fundraiser in Tennessee where he took swipes at Biden and Trump, touting his record of fighting culture war battles and “woke ideology” in Florida.

Two years ago, as the people of Cuba took to the streets to demand freedom, I urged President Biden to provide them internet and take a strong stance against the communist dictatorship.

Instead, we got silence.

Florida still stands with their fight for freedom.

— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) July 11, 2023

Biden’s re-election attempt received good news on Friday when it was revealed that his campaign raised $108 million in its first financial quarter. That amounted to more than double the $51 million raised by Trump, underscoring strong support among Democratic donors.

The Times