The DeSantis Super PAC issued an urgent plea to donors that the campaign needs $50 million by the end of the year, during a private meeting on August 23 in Milwaukee right before the last Republican primary debate, according to reports.
During the meeting, chief strategist for the Super PAC, Jeff Roe, told donors, “Now let me tell you a secret — don’t leak this,” according to a recording reviewed by the New York Times.
“The day after Labor Day we’re launching and we need your help to stay up and go hard the rest of the way. We need 50 million bucks,” he reportedly said.
Roe said he needed the $50 million “in the next month” before the second Republican primary debate, on September 27 — which would include $5 million per month just to sustain Iowa operations, the Times reported.
According to a report by CNN, the super PAC’s CEO Chris Jankowski, who was also at the meeting, emphasized the urgency of the situation.
“We just need your help getting $50 million more by the end of the year, and $100 million more by the end of March,” he said. “I’m not worried about the second 50. We need the first 50.”
Roe painted the situation as dire, according to the Times’ report.
He said DeSantis needed to beat former President Donald Trump “in the next 60 days” and separate from all of his other rivals “now.”
He even told donors that he would meet them in the T.S.A. line at the airport to collect their checks, saying, “This doesn’t run on, you know, fumes.”
“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,” he said, referencing 2016.
A Trump win at the Iowa Caucuses on January 15 “could accelerate the end of the Republican race,” the Times report said.
Trump has dominated polls among Republican primary candidates and has been consistently double digits ahead of DeSantis, despite the latter’s vaunted candidacy as a viable alternative to the former.
Both reports provided an inside look at the campaign strategy to beat Trump, including highlighting DeSantis’s wife, Casey, more on the campaign trail.
According to CNN, “Enlarging Casey DeSantis’s role, specifically, is something super PAC officials said they view as a crucial way to boost the governor’s campaign.”
Chief Operating Officer Kristin Davison said of Casey DeSantis, “With her help, they convert an entire room.”
The DeSantis campaign also complained about the media attention Trump attracts and that every time Trump is indicted, he gets a boost in media coverage, which has helped with support.
“Donald Trump probably gets roughly at least $30 million of earned media every single day. We’re number two, with roughly $5 (million) to $6 million every single day. Where you see the spikes are after every indictment,” Davison said, according to CNN.
“After every indictment, it goes up to $100 million of earned media, and in a presidential race, no news is bad news. What we really learned in 2016 is that Donald Trump dominated earned media and we see it happening now.”
Super PAC officials also criticized other GOP candidates as unpresidential.
Roe said Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) was deemed nice but not seen as presidential, while former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley was “not actually a lovely person” and also seen as unpresidential, according to the Times.
He also recalled when a fly landed on former Vice President Mike Pence, and said Trump was “certain” to lose the general election.
However, a recent poll by Morning Consult showed that Trump was only one point behind Biden in a general election if the vote were held now.
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