A top strategist for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) 2024 presidential campaign has just resigned.
The strategist, Jeff Roe, is one of DeSantis’s top consultants and he is also the “architect” of the governor’s presidential campaign.
Roe announced his resignation in an X post on Saturday, December 16, 2023.
This resignation, as we will see, follows a damning Washington Post report on the collapse of Never Back Down.
Never Back Down was the super PAC that Roe came up with for DeSantis’s presidential run.
Here is Roe’s X post, announcing his resignation:
I can’t believe it ended this way. I’m so proud to have worked alongside these men and women at NBD 24/7 the past nine months to save the country. Good luck the next 28 days and a wake up. I’m so sorry I can’t be there with you. pic.twitter.com/Rh4oQQ1tAE
— Jeff Roe (@jeffroe) December 17, 2023
Along with the above caption, Roe includes a statement in which he praises DeSantis.
He adds that he is proud of the job that he has done alongside DeSantis.
In the statement, Roe also makes it clear that the Post’s report did indeed have something to do with his resignation.
Roe wrote, “I cannot in good conscience stay affiliated with Never Back Down given the statements in the Washington Post today.
“They are not true and an unwanted distraction at a critical time for Governor DeSantis.”
There have been signs that things have not been going well at Never Back Down for some time.
Perhaps the biggest sign of all was the departure of a handful of senior officials and the firing of several others.
The Post’s report essentially details the chaos that has been going on behind the scenes.
Per the Post:
[T]he board chairman and the founding chief executive both resigned, amid internal concerns about legal compliance.
A verbal conflict from inside the group’s Atlanta offices became public, as did DeSantis’s own misgivings about the outside group’s leadership.
The governor and his campaign staff have been frustrated by reporting on the drama around Never Back Down and critical of the group’s ad strategy, with DeSantis’s second campaign manager, James Uthmeier, publicly instructing donors to give elsewhere for TV ads.
At this point, it is unlikely that any of this is going to have a big impact on DeSantis’s campaign.
He, after all, continues to trail former President Donald Trump – the Republican frontrunner – by 50 percentage points, on average.
Trump, for his part, has weighed in on Roe’s departure.
In a post in Truth Social, Trump wrote:
“Jeff Roe is out—GAME OVER for DeSanctimonious!#MAGA.”
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