Ron DeSantis Lays Off More Than a Third of His 2024 Campaign Staff

Nancy Cook
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(Bloomberg) -- Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign has now laid off a third of his staff, accelerating job cuts as he tries to get his struggling bid for the Republican nomination back on track.

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Roughly two dozen staffers have been let go as part of the changes as donors and supporters press DeSantis to salvage his campaign. He trails GOP frontrunner Donald Trump by a wide margin in polls.

“Following a top-to-bottom review of our organization, we have taken additional, aggressive steps to streamline operations and put Ron DeSantis in the strongest position to win this primary and defeat Joe Biden,” Campaign Manager Generra Peck said in a statement Tuesday.

DeSantis is pursuing a reset of his campaign after a rocky start that saw the governor enter the race heralded as a viable alternative to Trump, only to struggle to close the gap with the former president.

The campaign suffered a glitch-filled rollout on Twitter, followed by unforced errors and rampant spending. Though the campaign raised $20 million in the second quarter, it was burning money at a rapid clip, thanks to a staff of roughly 90 people and the governor’s penchant for travel on private planes.

Recent campaign filings revealed there have not been enough donations coming in to sustain the operation. The campaign had already fired roughly 10 staffers to cut costs — and two other top staffers departed of their own accord — but donors were anticipating more firings to address the cash crunch.

Digital director Ethan Eilon is also being elevated to deputy campaign manager, Bloomberg News first reported Tuesday. Eilon is seen as adept at controlling spending.

Earlier: DeSantis to Shake Up Team Amid Campaign Spending Scrutiny

Fresh polling has shown DeSantis losing ground to Trump nationally and in early voting states. Trump maintains a lead of more than 34 percentage points over DeSantis in the RealClearPolitics average of GOP polls.

The team has sought to calm donor fears that DeSantis is missing his moment. At a retreat for major donors over the weekend in Park City, Utah, Peck acknowledged the campaign had overspent during its first quarter and promised donors it would adopt a leaner operation moving forward, according to a person briefed on the session.

DeSantis and his wife, Casey, who is one of his closest political advisers, want the campaign reoriented by September, when they believe Americans will start to tune into the 2024 race, said one fundraiser who attended the Park City retreat.

The campaign is also focusing on visits and outreach to early voting states, and aims to have DeSantis do more town halls and intimate gatherings so voters can get to know him on a personal level, according to a person briefed on the plans.

In both Iowa and New Hampshire, the campaign has been criticized for sticking mostly to speeches or fireside chats instead of spending the time to take questions from voters — as is the custom in both states.

“Governor DeSantis is going to lead the Great American Comeback and we’re ready to hit the ground running as we head into an important month of the campaign,” Peck said Tuesday.

(Updates with additional details, background from fifth paragraph)

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