The CEO of a super PAC backing Ron DeSantis’s bid for the GOP presidential nomination announced his resignation on Wednesday, saying his role had become “untenable.”
“Never Back Down’s main goal and sole focus has been to elect Governor Ron DeSantis as President,” said Chris Jankowski in a statement provided by a spokeswoman for the super PAC.
“Given the current environment, it has become untenable for me to deliver on the shared goal, and that goes well beyond a difference of strategic opinion,” the statement continued. “For the future of our country, I support and pray Ron DeSantis is our 47th president.”
The announcement follows reports by NBC News and The New York Times, citing anonymous sources, about disagreements among the group’s leadership. Reports emerged Tuesday that a heated argument broke out among two members of the group’s leadership.
Never Back Down did not address a request for comment from The Epoch Times on the reports of these disagreements.
A new super PAC called Fight Right formed soon after the disagreement reportedly broke out.
The DeSantis campaign welcomed the group, with a spokesperson saying they were “excited to see even more backers stepping up to support Ron DeSantis’ candidacy.”
“We’ve already seen tremendous value in the support of groups like Never Back Down, and adding new allies to the mix to independently help spread the governor’s message will only strengthen our advantage in the important weeks and months ahead,” DeSantis campaign Communications Director Andrew Romeo said.
The Epoch Times contacted the DeSantis campaign for comment on the resignation of Mr. Jankowski and the reported leadership disagreement, and its cause.
Per The New York Times and NBC News, the super PAC met last week to discuss a strategy to beat Nikki Haley, a GOP presidential candidate who is rising in the polls. This led to an argument that almost came to blows, according to “a source who was in the room.”
Ms. Haley, once considered a long-shot candidate, emerged victorious last week in a mock Iowa caucus. Soon after, she won a bipartisan New Hampshire poll that pitted her against President Joe Biden.
On Nov. 13, the results of a mock caucus staged by the influential Young Republican National Federation indicated that Ms. Haley scored 37.8 percent of the caucus votes. This was more than GOP frontrunner former President Donald Trump, who picked up 23.3 percent of the vote.
Mr. DeSantis came in third with 16.7 percent of the vote in the precursor event.
Two days later, a New Hampshire poll by the Boston-based liberal Emerson College showed that Ms. Haley would beat President Biden with 45 percent of the vote. President Biden scored 39 percent of the votes, and President Trump lost by five points.
The bipartisan survey polled 917 registered New Hampshire voters.
However, President Trump remains an obstacle to Ms. Haley in the key battleground state, with the Emerson poll naming him the winner of the GOP nomination in the key battleground state.
Following the polls, the Haley campaign announced 72 new endorsements from community and political influencers in New Hampshire, including Mary Kramer, a former U.S. ambassador to Barbados under President George W. Bush.
Her campaign also announced that $10 million worth of campaign ads would begin running in Iowa and New Hampshire in December.
The DeSantis campaign has also spent more than $10 million for TV ads to appear between November and mid-January, according to an Epoch Times analysis of Federal Communications Commission disclosures. The disclosures were released by broadcasters in the Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Davenport, and Sioux City, Iowa, metro areas, as well as Omaha, Nebraska.
The Epoch Times contacted the DeSantis campaign about reports, citing anonymous sources, that the candidate and his wife were dissatisfied with the leadership at the Never Back Down group.
