Never Back Down, the Super PAC supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) presidential campaign, will be hosting the candidate himself on its bus tour of Iowa this week.
The 2024 hopeful will feature on a bus tour rolling through Iowa towns on Thursday and Friday, before DeSantis attends the Lincoln Dinner — the state’s premier political event — Friday night.
The announcement has raised ethical concerns about the PAC, as PACs are legally barred from coordinating events with campaigns. Founder Ken Cuccinelli defended the tour in a CBS interview on Wednesday.
“We can set up events and invite [the DeSantis campaign] to come, they just can’t have any input on what happens at the event,” Cuccinelli said.
“We’re not getting near any gray lines, the ground we’re treading is well-tried. We’re doing what others before us have done, and the FEC has dealt with all these issues. We’re not playing fast and loose at all.”
The bus tour will begin in Des Moines Thursday morning, then hit PAC-hosted events in Chariton, Osceola and Oskaloosa, Iowa over the two days.
The campaign stops come as DeSantis overhauls his staff amid a campaign that has been described as “facing an uphill battle” in challenging former President Trump for the GOP nomination. DeSantis fired about a third of his campaign staff in recent weeks.
The campaign also let go of a speechwriter Tuesday who promoted a pro-DeSantis video that included Nazi imagery.
“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,” campaign manager Generra Peck said.
Never Back Down is itself doubling down on DeSantis, significantly expanding its presence in Iowa. The Iowa caucus is the Republicans’ first primary vote and has been viewed as critical for DeSantis as he attempts to cinch the GOP presidential nomination.
“Never Back Down is laser-focused on amplifying the governor’s message through door-knocking, collecting caucus commitments and hosting events for him to participate in, and we’ll continue growing all of those efforts over the next several months,” spokesperson Jess Szymanski told the Des Moines Register.
Nationally, DeSantis has fallen further behind Trump in recent weeks. Polling averages show DeSantis with about 18 percent of Republican voters’ support while Trump carries about 52 percent.
That’s a 2 percent decline since he officially announced his campaign in May, and significantly behind his highest marks of 40 percent support in January.