If Anyone Knows Where to Find $50 Million, Ron DeSantis’s Super PAC Is Looking

Never Back Down—the pro–Ron DeSantis super PAC that is effectively running the Florida governor’s presidential campaign—is reportedly in desperate need of a massive cash injection. The PAC’s chief strategist, Jeff Roe, stressed the urgency of the situation while meeting with a group of wealthy donors just before the Republican debate last week. “The day after Labor Day we’re launching and we need your help to stay up and go hard the rest of the way,” he said, according to audio reviewed by The New York Times. “We need 50 million bucks.”

After explicitly asking the donors not to leak his “secret” request, Roe explained that Never Back Down needs much of the $50 million prior to the second Republican primary debate, which will take place on September 27. The rush? DeSantis’s lofty goal of knocking out Donald Trump within “the next 60 days,” Roe reportedly said, as well as staying atop the rest of the field and sustaining operations in Iowa. Chris Jankowski, the PAC’s chief executive, shared a similar timeline. “We just need your help getting $50 million more by the end of the year, and $100 million more by the end of March,” Jankowski told the donors gathered in Milwaukee for the debate, per a CNN report on the same meeting. “I’m not worried about the second 50. We need the first 50,” he added, according to audio obtained by the network.

Attempting to sell his candidate as the best option, Roe reportedly went on to profile the average DeSantis conservative, saying, “If you have an education, if you have higher income, if you read the Bible, and if you go to church regularly, you happen to be a DeSantis supporter.” He also reportedly took shots at other Republicans in the field: Roe argued that South Carolina senator Tim Scott is not White House material, said that former UN ambassador Nikki Haley is “not actually a lovely person,” and insisted that Trump, if nominated, would not only lose the general election but hurt down-ballot Republicans in the process. 

While DeSantis has largely polled ahead of competitors like Scott and Haley, he has failed to cut into Trump’s lead and has steadily lost support to other non-Trump candidates in recent weeks. Roe, for his part, brought that reality into stark relief, charging the assembled donors with the responsibility of giving DeSantis an extra boost. “This doesn’t run on, you know, fumes,” Roe said, according to the Times. “And so we’re going to go spend this money right now, betting that our donors won’t let us down. And I’ve been let down by donors a lot. And I’ve already lost once to Trump and we can’t do it again.” (Roe previously served on Texas senator Ted Cruz’s failed 2016 presidential primary campaign.)

In recent weeks, Never Back Down ended its field operations in a number of states, including Nevada and California, where it canceled its door-to-door canvassing operations, according to NBC News. It also rolled back operations in North Carolina and Texas. (Nevada is an early primary state, while California, North Carolina, and Texas are all Super Tuesday states slated for a March 5 election date.)

Erin Perrine, a Never Back Down spokesperson, told NBC News that the changes were made to invest more resources in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, three early nominating states. “We see real opportunities in the first three,” she told NBC News. “The first three are going to set the conditions for the March states.” As of June 30, Never Back Down has amassed $132.5 million and burned through nearly $34 million, the Times noted.