Ron and Casey DeSantis had to approve tweets, fundraising emails, creating ‘bottlenecks’ during doomed campaign: report
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his wife, Casey, are accused of being meticulous micromanagers who refused to allow staffers to send out campaign emails or tweets without their approval throughout his𒆙 2024 presidential race, former workers charged in a new report.
The level of control the DeSantises exerted on staffers, most of whom had no experience working on national political campaigns, created “bottlenecks” and led to repetitive soci🐟al media posts and fundraising emails being sent out, multiple former DeSantis campaign aides .
“There’s nothing anywhere in the organization, DeSantis or his wife don’t have their fingers on,” a former campaign ofജficial told the outlet.
“That includes a tweet, everything.”
Another former aide said that “DeSantis had to approve every single fundraising email.”
The Florida governor’s insistence on personally reviewing all communications rather than delegating the chore out created a “bottleneck,” with some♉times as ღmany as three days going by before submitted work was approved for release by either the governor or his wife, according to former campaign officials.
“They only had what looked like 1-3 form emails going out because DeSantis has to review every single fundraising email before it goes out,” a former staffer said. “So on top of a failed launch on Twitter Spaces, they ran with the same messaging𒅌 for days beca🐠use of the bottleneck.”
Another former aide recalled that it “would sometimes take two or three days to get a tweet approved for the people on the digital campaign because it had to go through these extremely arduous bureaucratic structures of approval.
“Both the governor and the first lady 𒊎had ꦜto look at different tweets before they went live,” they added.
DeSantis ended his White House bid earlier this month after a tumultuous eight months on the c𝓡ampaign trail.
Coming off a landslide gubernatorial re-election victory in 2022, DeSantis, 45, was widely seen as the likeliest Republican to beat former Presi🧸dent Donald Trump, 77, in the GOP primary. ✤;
However, his support months before the launch of his presidential campaign, during a glitch-filled Twitter Spaces with Elon Musk this past May.
The DeSantis campaign underwent multiple messaging “resets” and laid off a significant number of staffers just two months into the doomed campaign.
Last November, a near-brawl reportedly broke out when tempers flared during a su🌳per PAC strategy meeting aimed at countering former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s then-surging campaign.
The DeSantis-aligned Never Back Down super PAC saw several leaders and strategists resign in the weeks af🐓ter the fiery meeting. ;
DeSantis managed to finish second in the Iowa caucuses but suspended 🧜his campaign and endorsed Trump before the New Hampshire primary, citing the lack of a clear path to victory.