Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is already seeing a tremendous outpouring of support for a 2024 White House bid and he hasn’t even decided to run yet.
A senior Trump administration official and former Virginia attorney general has launched a new political action committee (PAC) to persuade Gov. DeSantis to throw his hat into the ring. Ken Cuccinelli served as acting deputy Homeland Security secretary under former President Trump during his final year in office.
The ex-Trump official filed Never Back Down PAC with Federal Elections Commission (FCE) in late February according to documents obtained by The Hill.
Cuccinelli launched the campaign to draft DeSantis into the 2024 race on Thursday, saying in a video that “America’s future is Ron DeSantis.”
“Ron DeSantis doesn’t just talk, he acts, but most of all he never backs down,” Cuccinelli says in the video. “Gov. DeSantis, today I’m asking you to run for president. You’ve had our back, now we will have yours.”
Two similar super PACS— titled “Ready for Ron” and “Ron to the Rescue” — which are not affiliated with DeSantis or his political circle are already up and running, raising money as they urge the governor to launch a presidential campaign. But sources in DeSantis’s wider political orbit have described those groups as “a grift – plain and simple” to Fox News.
Super PACs, known as independent expenditure-only committees, are legally allowed to raise unlimited sums of money from corporations, unions, associations and individuals, and to spend unlimited sums to support or oppose political candidates. Unlike traditional PACs, they are prohibited under long-standing federal rules from either coordinating or contributing directly to a candidate or candidate’s campaign.
DeSantis is widely expected to announce a presidential bid this spring. (RELATED: DeSantis Lays Out Timeline for 2024 Decision)
Last month, the Republican governor told “Fox & Friends” we would make a final decision after Florida’s legislative session wraps up in May and after his book tour.
Trump launched his campaign right after the 2022 midterm elections and has consistently attacked DeSantis ahead of his possible entry into the race.
“I have been speaking to many grassroots conservative activists around the country who are very enthusiastic for Governor DeSantis to run for President in 2024,” Cuccinelli said in a statement. “The energy is there, grassroots conservatives see the Governor as a leader and a fighter with a winning conservative track record who will lead the Republican Party to victory in 2024.”
Cuccinelli is hardly the first Trump-aligned Republican to change allegiances.
Donald Tapia, a prominent businessman from Arizona and Trump’s former ambassador to Jamaica from 2019 to 2021, was a strong financial backer of Trump in 2016 and 2020, contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars to the former president over his two elections but recently announced he plans to support DeSantis for president.
“The name-calling has turned a lot of people off,” Tapia said to Politico. “Let me tell you, we don’t like that.”
However, despite some grumblings among conservatives, Trump has consistently come on on top in various 2024 hypothetical matchups.
Cuccinelli’s first 13 words, whether you like him or not, describe Trump to a ‘tee’. He acts (kept his campaign promises), and he doesn’t back down (China, N Korea, etc). So what are we getting new, with DeSantis? So he doesn’t do ‘mean tweets’, I’ll take $1.89 gas, electricity and groceries’ I can afford.
President Trump is God’s choice and anointed to be President. God chose President Donald J. Trump to be President for such a time as this, before he was even conceived and born. God knows what he is doing and certain people think they know what they are doing, but they can go ahead and get terribly embarrassed and have your tail tucked between their legs like a old beaten hound.
Governor DeSantis can run one state. Trump ran the country, and did a great job!
I like Ron Desantis as governor. He has done a good job, but he is not ready for the white house other than being VP for President Trump. President Trump is the only one in this country that CAN AND WILL save America. He did it once without any help, just take if all you jerk republicans had got behind him instead of supporting the enemy (democrats) we would not be in the mess we are in. The good book reads “clean out the mote from your own eye before trying to remove from others” It is most likely that Ron could win but he is not seasoned in the knowledge and the know how to run the country. After serving 4 years with trump he will be ready for 8 more years, a 12 year run. So all of you trying to destroy our country pull your head out of your asses and let’s get it done and lets start investigating and charging the dumb-c.r.a.t.s in Washington.
The best outcome that the country could hope for would be for. Ron to become an active and popular VP for President Trump’s last four years, and then carry on as President for another eight years.
I like Desantis but I like Trump more. I want Trump for 4 years and then Desantis for 8 years, Hopefully by then the so called “Progressives” will be gone or conquered. I think they’re Regressives..