Two veterans of Ron DeSantis’ political operation are leaving to work with an outside group. The husband and wife team of Dave Abrams and Tucker Obenshain are leaving to join a pro-DeSantis non-profit group.
Abrams is the campaign’s communications adviser and media director, and Tucker Obenshain led fundraising efforts. Obenshain will lead the group that is expected to host events. It is the start of the “DeSantis is everywhere strategy.” There is particular concentration on the early nominating states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.
“The more people hear and see Gov. DeSantis and his forward-thinking vision to fix Joe Biden’s failures, the better our path to victory,” Andrew Romeo, a DeSantis campaign spokesman, said in a statement. “Gov. DeSantis will be appearing at events with dozens of organizations celebrating his policy and leadership. The ‘DeSantis is everywhere’ tour has begun.”
As of right now, Donald Trump is not campaigning to be the next president. He’s playing a waiting game. He’s waiting for some of the others to run out of money and drop out. And, he’s waiting to see how long Ron DeSantis will stay in. Trump isn’t participating in big events with other candidates and he may or may not realize that is disrespectful to primary voters. Trump is not owed the nomination, though he thinks he is owed it. He has to earn it like any other candidate.
Trump is making some mistakes that he seems incapable of putting a stop to doing. Besides the perpetual re-living of the 2020 election results, he continues to trash Republicans more than he trashes Joe Biden and other Democrats. Some of that is to be expected – it’s a competition – but his habit of claiming to be a kingmaker for every elected Republican is old and tired. One Iowa state senator is in the news this weekend because he has pulled his endorsement of Trump and is endorsing DeSantis. Why? Because trashing Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds as someone that owed her success in getting elected as governor to Trump was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Iowa State Senator Jeff Reichman said he won’t let that slide, as he has done for other remarks Trump has made. That is something Trump should think about. Reynolds is very popular in Iowa. She won 95 out of 99 counties in her last election. State legislators have working relationships with her and will show loyalty to her. That is what happened here. Trump asked the event organizer, Bob Vander Plaats, if he could send Senator J.D. Vance as a surrogate but was turned down.
This is 2023, not 2015. Trump may maintain his lead and go on to win the nomination. But, he may also start to crater. Stranger things have happened. It is almost a cliche at this point to talk about the fact that it is still early enough for DeSantis to catch fire, but it is. Trump’s arrogance is wearing thin on voters who are interested in checking out the other candidates. Republicans may finally be tired enough of losing to change course. That would be refreshing. Stop doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
There is no problem with raising money for the DeSantis campaign. The problem is that DeSantis has failed to live up to expectations. He hasn’t been able to knock Trump down in the polls and, in fact, DeSantis finds himself losing a little ground in the polls. The press is excited about that. They enjoy writing about the demise of the DeSantis campaign because they want another Trump-Biden match-up so Biden remains in office and their world doesn’t change. The Swamp loves the status quo.
Trump remains anywhere from 20-30 points ahead of the other candidates in most polls. DeSantis has to start moving up in order to hold on to supporters. In New Hampshire, for example, Chris Christie is putting all his chips on that primary in hopes of slowing Trump. He is moving up on DeSantis.
NEW HAMPSHIRE 2024: Trump holds 37-point lead for Republican Nomination
Trump — 48% (+37)
DeSantis — 11%
Christie — 10%
Scott — 7%
Ramaswamy — 5%
Pence — 5%
Haley — 3%
Burgum — 3%American Pulse l July 5-11 l n=895https://t.co/YdnQjFAJdt
— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) July 14, 2023
Real Clear Politics shows Trump at 39, DeSantis at 15, and Christie at 7 in its latest poll on the New Hampshire primary.
The first step to correcting a problem is to admit you have a problem. The DeSantis campaign is doing that and that is a good sign.
On Thursday, NBC News reported on an internal memo that DeSantis circulated among donors recently seemed to acknowledge the rocky rollout, signaling the campaign would hold off investing in Super Tuesday states to shore up resources in New Hampshire.
Abrams and Obenshain played key roles on DeSantis’ blowout 2022 reelection win. Obenshain, who previously served as chief of staff to first lady Casey DeSantis and as a DeSantis reelection campaign finance director, will be leading the outside group. Abrams led paid media strategy on the 2022 campaign. He is expected to join a media firm, Ascent, that will be helping the pro-DeSantis nonprofit group.
Flood the zone. Concentrate on early primary states for now. Knock it out of the park during the first Republican debate next month. We’ll see how the reorganization goes for DeSantis. It’s not too late but time is growing short.
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