Pro-DeSantis PAC courts top strategists from Cruz, Youngkin, and Trump campaigns: Report

Never Back Down, a political action committee founded by Republican Ken Cuccinelli earlier this month, is reportedly bringing onboard experienced GOP strategists from high-profile campaigns. The PAC’s aim is to help Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) use the 2024 presidential election as a springboard for his political ascent, as per sources who have spoken to the Washington Post.

Staffers from the 2020 campaign of former President Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) 2016 campaign, and Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R-VA) 2021 campaign, are joining Never Back Down. DeSantis is not formally associated with the PAC, but several other groups are looking to draft him into the 2024 GOP presidential primary race. Phil Cox, one of DeSantis’s allies and a former top adviser to his 2022 reelection campaign, is providing assistance to Never Back Down, and is working with Axiom Strategies President Jeff Roe, who is collaborating with the PAC.

Axiom Strategies is a Republican political consulting firm that Roe co-founded. Roe had earlier worked for Cruz’s 2016 campaign and Youngkin’s 2021 gubernatorial campaign. He recently joined Never Back Down with Kristin Davison, a former top adviser to Youngkin, who will be taking over as the group’s chief operating officer. Another Virginia strategist, Chris Jankowski, is also collaborating with Davison. Davison and Roe will continue to advise Youngkin. David Polyansky, Axiom’s chief strategy officer, will step into the role of senior adviser at Never Back Down, bringing extensive experience as an adviser to Republican campaigns from Iowa, including those of former Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), to the PAC.

The PAC has also brought onboard Matt Wolking, former Trump 2020 deputy communications director, and Erin Perrine, the 2020 Trump campaign’s director of press communications, from Trumpworld. Following his recruitment on Monday, Wolking tweeted, “Trump was the president we needed 8 years ago, but to make America great again, our movement needs a disciplined leader who wins instead of loses, never backs down, fights smart and puts the mission before himself.” Meanwhile, Justin Caporale, who leads Trump’s 2024 advance team, reportedly declared that staffers who had assisted DeSantis’s recent book tour across early states like Iowa were “persona non grata.”

DeSantis has yet to indicate whether he plans to run for presidency in 2024. He is unlikely to make a decision before the closure of the Florida legislature’s session in May. However, he is expected to travel to early states, such as New Hampshire, Iowa, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, over the next few months. DeSantis is also scheduled to visit Israel next month. The latest RealClearPolitics polling aggregate places him in second place among 2024 GOP contenders.