DeSantis Makes Massive Campaign Change as He Struggles to Gain in Polls Against Trump
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign will cut more than a third of its staff as the Republican struggles to gain traction in the 2024 primary thus far dominated by former President Donald Trump.
Politico reported, “The cuts, which were confirmed by advisers, will amount to a total of 38 jobs shed across an array of departments. They will include the roughly 10 event planning positions that were announced several weeks ago, in addition to the recent departures of two senior DeSantis campaign advisers, Dave Abrams and Tucker Obenshain.”
DeSantis campaign manager Generra Peck said in a statement, “Following a top-to-bottom review of our organization, we have taken additional, aggressive steps to streamline operations and put Ron DeSantis in the strongest position to win this primary and defeat Joe Biden.”
Politico noted that while aides like Abrams and Obenshain will be leaving the campaign staff, they will be moving over to a pro-DeSantis political group to help in the broader effort.
At the end of June, federal filings showed the campaign with 90-plus staffers on the payroll, according to the news outlet.
The Trump campaign’s official Twitter account responded to the story writing, “DESANTIS CAMPAIGN FIRES 38 AS POLLING COLLAPSES.”
BREAKING: DESANTIS CAMPAIGN FIRES 38 AS POLLING COLLAPSES https://t.co/6FvZmCmhwM
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) July 25, 2023
As of Tuesday, Trump led the field of Republican candidates by more than 30 percentage points, according to the RealClear Politics average of polls.
The 45th president had 52.3 percent support; while DeSantis garners 18 percent; former Vice President Mike Pence, 5.5 percent; businessman Vivek Ramaswamy 5.5 percent; former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, 3.5 percent; and U.S. Senator Tim Scott, 2.9 percent.
Monmouth University released a poll Tuesday showing Trump ahead of DeSantis by 32 percentage points.
2024 National Republican Primary:
Trump 54% (+32)
DeSantis 22%
Ramaswamy 5%
Scott 3%
Christie 3%
Haley 3%
Pence 3%
Burgum 1%
Johnson 1%
Hutchinson 0%
Suarez 0%
Hurd 0%
Elder 0%
Laffey 0%Head-2-Head:
Trump 55% (+20)
DeSantis 35%.@MonmouthPoll, 681 RV, 7/12-19… pic.twitter.com/GmilxAp4pG
— Political Polls (@Politics_Polls) July 25, 2023
In May, shortly before DeSantis officially announced his presidential bid, several polls showed him garnering 25 percent support among the primary electorate.
A CNN poll conducted in March had the Florida governor beating Trump, 39 to 37 percent. Other polls showed the race between the two much closer than now.
In a recent interview, Trump told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo that he had not made a decision about whether he will participate in the GOP debate on August 23, which would be a venue for DeSantis to stand toe-to-toe with the former president to try to make inroads.
“Well you know, it’s quite an easy question normally. Ronald Reagan didn’t do it and a lot of other people didn’t do it. When you have a big lead, you don’t do it,” Trump said.
“We have a lead of 50 and 60 points in some cases,” he continued. “You’re leading people by 50 and 60 points, you say why would you be doing a debate? It’s actually not fair. Why would you let somebody that’s at zero or one or two or three be popping you with questions?”
President Donald #Trump refused to say whether he would participate in the first Republican primary debate on August 23. pic.twitter.com/C6oz0Mlq5c
— RawNews1st (@Raw_News1st) July 17, 2023
Bartiromo followed up, “Do you see any risk that if you don’t show up, Ron DeSantis has a good night and it cuts into your lead?”
“Or somebody else has a good night and cuts into his lead, because that’s what’s happening,” Trump responded.
“He’s going down and a couple of them are going up.”
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