DeSantis PAC Spokesman Admits ‘We Are Way Behind,’ Calls Trump ‘Runaway Frontrunner’ and ‘Maestro’ of Debates
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Nothing good for Ron DeSantis comes from a Twitter Space, it seems.
The Florida governor’s glitch-filled campaign launch on the live audio service for Elon Musk’s social media platform in May drew widespread mockery, and in another Twitter Space Sunday evening, a top spokesman for DeSantis’ PAC offered an utterly glum assessment of his chances against former President Donald Trump.
According to a report by Politico’s Meredith McGraw, Never Back Down PAC spokesman Steve Cortes “got pretty blunt” and was “sounding a decidedly dour note” on DeSantis’ ability to overtake the ex-president in the GOP presidential primary in a Twitter Spaces chat hosted by @CryptoLawyerz, an anonymous right-leaning account who says he is an attorney and formerly worked at the Department of Justice.
“Right now in national polling we are way behind, I’ll be the first to admit that,” said Cortes. “I believe in being blunt and honest. It’s an uphill battle but clearly Donald Trump is the runaway frontrunner.”
He added that DeSantis’ campaign was the “clear underdog,” and added that in the first four primary states, “which matter tremendously, polls are a lot tighter, we are still clearly down. We’re down double digits, we have work to do.”
Cortes, who worked on the Trump campaign in 2016 and 2020, expressed some hope that DeSantis could catch up with Trump as he continued to work the campaign trail, but so far, the polling numbers have not showed many positive signs for the Harvard Law grad.
The FiveThiryEight polling average has Trump absolutely clobbering DeSantis nationally, more than doubling the governor’s numbers, 51.8% to 23.5%.
The latest polls are similarly brutal in Iowa (Trump 51%, DeSantis 19%), South Carolina (Trump 41%, DeSantis 18%), New Hampshire (Trump 47%, DeSantis 19%), and Nevada (Trump 52%, DeSantis 22%).
That New Hampshire poll, conducted by Saint Anselm College in late June, had some particularly depressing signals for DeSantis. Not only has he failed to make any gains against Trump, he’s actually dropped 10 points since their late March poll as other recent entries into the GOP primary gained (former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is up 5 points, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) is up 3 points, and former Vice President Mike Pence and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley both went up 1 point).
New Hampshire voters also seem unswayed by DeSantis’ battle with Mickey Mouse, with 53 percent of all voters saying he was “unfairly targeting an important employer for political gain.” Sixty-five percent of GOP voters sided with DeSantis on the Disney issue, but it was a complete loser with Democrats and independents (89% and 54% said he was unfairly targeting Disney, respectively), illustrating the toxicity it presents in a general election.
During Sunday’s Twitter Space, Cortes did find some reason for optimism in DeSantis’ primary efforts — but not for DeSantis himself, predicting that the primary battle would make Trump a “better” and more competitive general election candidate.
“If we do not prevail — and I have every intent on winning, I didn’t sign up for this to come in second — but if we do not prevail I will tell you this, we will make President Trump better for having this kind of primary,” said Cortes.
Cortes also offered praise for Trump’s skills on the debate stage, musing that it might help DeSantis if Trump carries through on his threat to boycott the first RNC-hosted debate next month:
“Is Ron the debater that Trump is?” he said. “No, no he isn’t.”
“Absolutely Donald Trump is the maestro of it right, no doubt about it, right. When he gets on the debate stage, you know, and on his feet, in front of a microphone, he debates like Jack Nicklaus played golf, there’s no doubt about it,” Cortes said.
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