Ron DeSantis’ campaign is coughing up blood, so say various individuals who have or do work for the Florida governor’s ongoing Oval Office quest, according to NBC.
Last week, the popular conservative governor was rejected by (most) of Iowa’s Republican voter base in favor of another Trump nomination.
The result was not unexpected, but still stung a campaign that sunk most of its effort and resources into the first-in-the-nation state only to come up way short, and uncomfortably close to a third-place finish.
It’s been a campaign filled with gaffes including viral videos of DeSantis laughing and deciding to announce on Twitter, a move that was filled with glitches and technical problems.
They have hemorrhaged staff and donors as DeSantis continued to push against woke and fall in the polls.
One former adviser to the DeSantis super PAC Never Back Down told NBC of the campaign: ‘When they decided to do the Twitter Spaces launch, maybe then at that point, I knew they were stupid.’
The once shiny and hopeful idea of a DeSantis campaign was at its peak in the weeks after his astounding 20-point win in the state of Florida in November 2022 – things never came together as well as it seemed like they might at that time
![Now, days ahead of the New Hampshire primary, where DeSantis is expected to come in third (of the three remaining candidates), former supporters are hoping for a quick, painless end to the campaign](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/01/21/19/80279667-12989213-Now_days_ahead_of_the_New_Hampshire_primary_where_DeSantis_is_ex-a-101_1705863871163.jpg)
Now, days ahead of the New Hampshire primary, where DeSantis is expected to come in third (of the three remaining candidates), former supporters are hoping for a quick, painless end to the campaign
Whether or not he believed it, DeSantis maintained until the end that he was going to win Iowa.
He toured the whole of the state meeting with voters, and earned the endorsement of both the state’s very popular governor Kim Reynolds, and influential evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats.
But his retail politics play, which has often been rewarded by Iowa voters, did not pay off for the 45-year-old father of three.
The New Hampshire primary is this week, but DeSantis has all but ignored it. ‘We haven’t spent very much money here,’ he told Fox News last week from the Granite State.
‘Nikki Haley is spending an inordinate amount of money here,’ he added, noting that he feels Donald Trump is benefitting from Iowa momentum in New Hampshire.
After New Hampshire, where he will likely place third of three, DeSantis’ team will focus in on South Carolina, a state that loves Trump and where Haley served as a successful governor for six years.
As it becomes not a likelihood but an abject reality that DeSantis cannot beat Trump, his only remaining hope for the nomination is that something will knock the frontrunner out of contention.
One supporter told NBC that DeSantis, as he has long said publicly on the campaign trail, ‘believes there are multiple scenarios where Trump wouldn’t be the nominee.’
Trump is lively and charismatic – perhaps in a way that DeSantis is not – but he is old and that makes his candidacy inherently risky and unpredictable.
But more importantly, the former president remains in serious, ongoing legal trouble, which doesn’t seem like it will stop him from snagging the nomination, but could potentially stop him from accepting the nomination.
DeSantis, at this point in the race, is positioning himself as the strong alternative to the frontrunner if he, for some reason, becomes unavailable to run.
Needless to say, this is not how things were supposed to shake out for the man who won the formerly purple state of Florida by 20 points in his last election.
![DeSantis has gone head-to-head with Nikki Haley and eked out a win over her camp in Iowa, but whether he can beat her in her own home state of South Carolina remains to be seen](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/01/21/19/80280487-12989213-DeSantis_has_gone_head_to_head_with_Nikki_Haley_and_eked_out_a_w-a-106_1705863871208.jpg)
DeSantis has gone head-to-head with Nikki Haley and eked out a win over her camp in Iowa, but whether he can beat her in her own home state of South Carolina remains to be seen
![Vivek Ramaswamy (left) who dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucus, immediately endorsed Donald Trump and will likely become a campaign surrogate](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/01/21/19/80275889-12989213-Vivek_Ramaswamy_left_who_dropped_out_of_the_race_after_the_Iowa_-a-102_1705863871165.jpg)
Vivek Ramaswamy (left) who dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucus, immediately endorsed Donald Trump and will likely become a campaign surrogate
![DeSantis, some speculate, is hanging on for now because of the potential that Trump could drop out due to unforeseen circumstances involving his age and/or legal troubles](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/01/21/19/80280473-12989213-DeSantis_some_speculate_is_hanging_on_for_now_because_of_the_pot-a-103_1705863871165.jpg)
DeSantis, some speculate, is hanging on for now because of the potential that Trump could drop out due to unforeseen circumstances involving his age and/or legal troubles
One month after his unprecedented win in Florida, polls showed DeSantis beating both Trump and Biden in potential election cycle match ups.
At the time, support seemed to be waning for Trump after what had been another tough election cycle for Republicans – at least those outside the state of Florida.
DeSantis was positioned as the heir apparent to Trump’s Republican party, but the odds that Trump was really going to back down never seemed very high.
There was a moment when DeSantis was eating into Trump’s numbers so significantly, that a convincing argument could clearly be made, and was made to major backers, for his candidacy.
But he would wait another six-months to officially declare his run for office. Momentum had already been lost, and a glitchy, underwhelming campaign roll out on Elon Musk’s newly revamped Twitter spaces was a bad omen for what was to come.
‘A total failure to launch,’ is how one former DeSantis adviser described it.
‘This thing blew up on the launch pad,’ he continued. A fitting metaphor given the announcement was hosted by SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who certainly has experience with such things.
It was not long after the messy May 2023 rollout that things started to devolve amid the ranks of the DeSantis campaign and super PAC.
Personality clashes that would launch a thousands process stories became a central theme of the media’s coverage of the DeSantis camp, and things never really worked themselves out.
NBC reports that finances at both the DeSantis campaign and Never Back Down were mismanaged to varying degrees. But poor decisions led to several cycles of boom and bust hiring and firing activity that became a highly reported bad look.
![Ron and Casey DeSantis (left) put almost all of their campaign eggs into the Iowa basket, and came up tragically short](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/01/21/19/80280491-12989213-Ron_and_Casey_DeSantis_left_put_almost_all_of_their_campaign_egg-a-104_1705863871166.jpg)
Ron and Casey DeSantis (left) put almost all of their campaign eggs into the Iowa basket, and came up tragically short
![Donald Trump, who DeSantis once looked like he may be a real threat to, is cruising toward the Republican nomination](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/01/21/19/80280457-12989213-Donald_Trump_who_DeSantis_once_looked_like_he_may_be_a_real_thre-a-105_1705863871166.jpg)
Donald Trump, who DeSantis once looked like he may be a real threat to, is cruising toward the Republican nomination
And then came the money problems.
According to the NBC report, once momentum began to stall inside the campaign – which was almost immediately – DeSantis began struggling to directly fundraise for his team.
Notably, Citadel founder Ken Griffin, who had previously backed DeSantis’ political efforts, edged away from the campaign reportedly due to the governor’s focus on ‘culture war’ battles.
DeSantis tends to come down on the side of social conservatives, which may have been a problem for him during this primary cycle.
‘Losing Ken was big,’ a donor told NBC. ‘And the bigger problem was it sent a signal to others.’
Right now, morale is reportedly low at DeSantis HQ.
Staffers aren’t sure when the road will end for their guy, but they’re hoping sooner rather than later.
‘It’s done. He’s not going to win it. If you are serious about not wanting Trump to be the nominee, as much as it pains me to say this at this point, I think all the energy goes to Nikki Haley,’ said one former Never Back Down operative.
‘I’m just really tired of all the infighting.’