ATLANTA, GEORGIA — Never Back Down, a super PAC backing DeSantis is flush with cash after it received $82.5 million from DeSantis’ former state political fund.
The super PAC is now ready to spend big on ads targeting Republican swing voters they feel are far-right rather than center-right and focused on cultural issues contributing to the decline of America.
“CULTURAL COMBAT”
“The fight for the soul of the party isn’t about tax cuts or trade deals,” Jeff Roe, a top adviser to Never Back Down, told Axios. “It is this cultural combat that we have as a country.”
“These people know that DeSantis is a culture warrior for this time,” Roe added. “These voters are more angry than they were in 2016.”
This week, the super PAC placed a $5 million ad buy through July 4 – America’s 247th birthday – in hopes of igniting more of that anger in voters throughout the holiday weekend.
THE RIGHT STRATEGY?
But is DeSantis’ focus on far-right voters the right strategy?
“[Y]ou don't win nationally by moving to the left, you win nationally by standing for bold policies,” DeSantis told Matt Murphy in an interview. “We showed that in Florida, I never watered down anything I did. I never contorted myself to be something I'm not. I went out there and told the truth. People knew where I stood. And they responded in record fashion."
If results are favorable in early-voting states, the strategy will launch the Florida governor closer to a national nomination. DeSantis also appears more focused on staying to the right of Trump on cultural issues – but has shown that he’s serious about overhauling a federal bureaucracy that is no longer “for the people.”
The federal bureaucracy “has imposed its will on us for too long. It’s about time ‘We the People’ impose OUR WILL on it,” DeSantis told voters in South Carolina.
Two internal polls reported by Axios showed the Florida governor effectively tied with Trump in Iowa – with DeSantis up 14 points after he kicked off his campaign officially with his wife Casey in the Hawkeye State.
A GRASSROOTS EFFORT
Last week, super PAC pollster Tony Fabrizio argued in a memo to GOP donors that it’s a “myth” that DeSantis is more electable than Trump. Meanwhile DeSantis’ official political campaign has allowed Never Back Down to take the lead in a grassroots organization that is spreading nationally.
The super PAC says its volunteers and paid organizers have knocked on more than 65,000 doors and had more than 19,000 discussions with voters in Iowa with a goal of reaching each caucus-voter five times before election day.
The same grassroots effort is underway in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. Never Back Down told the New York Times that it intends to hire more than 2,600 field organizers by Labor Day.
