Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is just getting started in the GOP Primary.
He received a major boost in two crucial early states.
And Ron DeSantis saw one big number that is going to turn 2024 upside down.
The first two states on the Republican Primary calendar, Iowa and New Hampshire, will shape the course of the race.
A win in one or both of the elections by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis would end the aura of inevitability around former President Donald Trump.
DeSantis is criss-crossing the two states for events to introduce himself and his record to Primary voters.
The Florida Governor is getting a major boost in Iowa and New Hampshire with a planned ad buy of at least $25 million in those states by Never Back Down, the main super PAC backing his campaign.
The television advertising would flood the airwaves between Labor Day and Halloween when most voters begin deciding about who they’ll back in the Primary early next year.
Kristin Davison, the chief operating officer of Never Back Down, said that the amount of spending on television ads could increase as the PAC tests the reaction from voters about earlier ads backing DeSantis.
“After preseason dominance and a complete debate victory by Gov. DeSantis, we are now running aggressively into the political season while others are playing catch-up,” Davison told the Washington Post.
DeSantis supporters are hoping that he can build off the momentum he gained from a strong performance in the first GOP Primary debate.
A Washington Post, FiveThirtyEight and Ipsos poll found that 29% of Republican voters thought that DeSantis had the best performance slightly edging out entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
Never Back Down officials made the case that Iowa is still in play for the Florida Governor at a donor briefing before the debate.
They cited an Iowa poll from NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom that found that 42% of likely caucus-goers were supporting Trump compared to 19% for DeSantis.
The poll found that Iowa is still anyone’s ballgame with many Trump supporters open to supporting someone else.
52% of likely caucus-goers hadn’t made up their mind yet including 34% of Trump supporters.
DeSantis and Trump were tied in favorability in the poll with two-thirds having favorable opinions of both candidates.
Texas business executive Roy Bailey, a former national co-finance chairman for Trump’s 2020 campaign who switched to DeSantis, said that he left the donor meeting feeling good about the direction of the DeSantis campaign.
“[Never Back Down advisor] Jeff Roe just laid out a brilliant plan that is not only impressive but really believable and now we just got to go execute,” Bailey said. “These are start-up businesses. They are not a perfect science. In any start-up business, you never know just what to expect so you have to retrofit it to be perfect.”
Help is on the way for Ron DeSantis in two crucial Primary states that will play a major role in deciding the nomination.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any developments to this ongoing story.
