According to the Daily Mail, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s $50 million super PAC, ‘Ron to the Rescue,’ has been shut down.
The PAC’s founder, Republican strategist John Thomas, cited a series of “rookie mistakes” as the reason.
Thomas, known as the ‘Billy the Kid of Political Battles,’ had initially secured substantial financial commitments from high-profile donors. However, these donors began to have second thoughts after the failed launch of Twitter Spaces in May. There were technical glitches. [Many found his comments uninspiring, given the seriousness of the country’s plight. His speech sounded like the typical stump speech.]
The PAC had initially planned to spend heavily on TV campaigns, but major donors pulled back after the weak launch to see how things evolved.
Thomas said the campaign failed to provide essential video content for television stations. That’s critical for a launch.
THE ROOKIE MISTAKES
Further mistakes included posting internal documents online. He also agreed to debate California Governor Gavin Newsom. Thomas labeled these as “rookie errors.” The PAC spent only around $20,000 on grassroots efforts, not $50 million.
DeSantis covered various topics, from woke culture, the border crisis, and the failure of Bidenism.
At that time, former president Trump, DeSantis’ GOP rival, harshly mocked the Florida Governor on Truth Social during the launch, saying, “Rob, My Red Button is bigger, better, stronger, and is working (TRUTH!), yours does not! (per my conversation with Kim Jung Un, of North Korea, soon to become my friend!).”
The closure of the super PAC comes as a significant setback for DeSantis, who was already trailing far behind Trump in the polls. With the PAC’s closure, DeSantis’ campaign lost a significant financial and strategic resource, raising questions about the viability of his presidential run.
Trump has pulled away as the front-runner over recent months. Meanwhile, DeSantis has tried to fend off other GOP nominees on his trial, such as Vivek Ramaswamy.
Earlier this month, one of DeSantis’ biggest donors, hotel entrepreneur Robert Bigelow, announced he would not donate any more than the $20 million he had already given unless DeSantis adopted a more moderate approach, particularly concerning the six-week abortion ban in Florida.
According to the DailyMail, Thomas and his donor network are now considering supporting former President Donald Trump. Thomas was an early supporter of Trump and had founded ‘Ron to the Rescue’ after Republicans’ lackluster performance in the 2022 midterms.
Thoughts
Many of the Sentinel readers don’t like Ron DeSantis. I think Gov. DeSantis is very competent, but his campaign was lackluster on a good day. We have one candidate who is promising to do what we need to be done, and that is Donald Trump, who Democrats want to imprison for 770 years or worse. Additionally, Donald Trump is the only hope for those J6 prisoners facing decades in prison for the riot. They just sentenced J6 “rioters” Joseph Biggs and Enrique Tarrio (who wasn’t even in D.C.) to prison for 17 years. that is a sentence usually reserved for murderers.
DeSantis was doing so well as the Florida Governor, I fail to understand why he wanted to run for potus. At this time. Back Trump, then step in line for President in the next election. Given Ron’s track record with FL, thus far, and Trump being elected in ’24 and saving the nation once again, Ron could continue the righting the ship of the USA. Shaking my head at him stepping into the ring at all at this time. Somebody in the deep state, including the nutjobs in the establishment bunch, must have gotten to him.
Oh yeah, and, yes, Trump will beat the system in ’24. We have no other choice if this nation is to survive as a Constitutional Republic.
We live in a corrupt country that is for sale to the highest bidder foreign or domestic. Just ask Joe and Hunter.
John Thomas isn’t MAGA and is having buyer’s remorse. It’s obvious he was trying to undermine Trump. Looks like it came back to bite him in the arse. Boohoo!
I see various excuses being made about the errors of the “launch” of the DeSantis campaign. That launch failed because the public saw DeSantis as disloyal and acting out of turn. The polls show that. The public is not worried about twitter or debating with Newsom. The launch at all was an incredible blunder. When it failed, the elites want to blame others.
I think Trump should not use Thomas in any policy or planning part of his campaign.Trump does not need Thomas at all. Thomas was a big part of this RDS botched campaign.