Head of pro-DeSantis super PAC steps down

The head of a super PAC backing GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis announced Wednesday that he was stepping down from his post.

“Never Back Down’s main goal and sole focus has been to elect Governor Ron DeSantis as President. 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,” Chris Jankowski, CEO of the Never Back Down super PAC, said in a statement through a spokeswoman for the group. 

“For the future of our country I support and pray Ron DeSantis is our 47th president,” he added.

The New York Times was the first to report of Jankowski’s departure.

Jankowski’s announcement came against the backdrop of reported disagreements between leadership within Never Back Down, with NBC News reporting Tuesday that several members of the pro-DeSantis group got into a heated argument during a budgeting discussion.

It also came against the backdrop of the creation of a newer super PAC, called Fight Right, that received a $1 million infusion as DeSantis and his wife reportedly expressed frustration with Never Back Down, according to NBC News and The New York Times. 

Prior to DeSantis’s entry into the 2024 GOP primary field, he was seen as former President Trump’s chief rival. But he has struggled to narrow the gap in national and early-state polling against Trump, while former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley has made inroads in states such as New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Still, Haley, too, trails Trump by double digits in those states, raising questions about the viability of a non-Trump alternative in the primary.

DeSantis, who polls in second place according to RealClearPolitics’s polling average of Iowa polls, has received a few boosts in recent weeks with endorsements from Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) and influential evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats.

The Hill has reached out to the DeSantis campaign for comment.

Updated 6:21 p.m.