A former pro-Ron DeSantis PAC campaign spokesperson announced his support for Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential race on Wednesday.
DeSantis, the Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate, came second in the Iowa caucus on Monday with 21.3 percent of votes. Trump held on to his front-runner position in the Republican primary field, winning in all but one of the state’s 99 counties. DeSantis, long seen as Trump’s main rival before his campaign went into reverse last year, had devoted time, money and resources to Iowa, but didn’t make a breakthrough. However, he did fend off the challenge from Nikki Haley, who failed to capitalize on her recent momentum and narrowly came third.
Meanwhile, three months before the Iowa caucus, Steve Cortes, then national spokesperson for the Never Back Down campaign PAC, stepped down from his position. In a previous statement to The Hill, the Never Back Down campaign said Cortes left his role, but would continue to support DeSantis in a personal capacity.
“Steve launched his own show and left his role as a spokesman for Never Back Down,” said Erin Perrine, communications director for the campaign. “He will continue to support Governor DeSantis in his personal capacity.”
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However, on Wednesday, just two days after Iowa’s results, Cortes announced in a column on Real Clear Politics, a political news website, that he would be backing Trump.
“I believed that Republican voters were ready for a new post-Trump chapter of the America First movement. I now believe I was wrong,” Cortes wrote.
Newsweek has reached out to the DeSantis campaign via email for comment.
Cortes, who served as an adviser and spokesperson in Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns, explained how the Iowa caucus results are telling of who the GOP presidential nominee should be.
“Those of us who backed Ron DeSantis – or the other Republican candidates – should read the room. Former President Trump winnowed the field effortlessly and then crushed the remaining three candidates in Iowa. He leads in the polls everywhere else. It is time to coalesce and unite behind the clear preference of the GOP grassroots, Donald John Trump,” Cortes added.
In addition, Cortes urges others to drop support for the other Republican presidential candidates and instead back Trump to gear up for the presidential election in November.
“It is time to unify behind former President Trump as he leads the battle against the ruling class and the oligarchs intent on destroying the American way of life. I implore all patriotic populists to join as I pledge to do all I can to work for Trump’s cause, just as I proudly did in 2016 and 2020,” Cortes said.
Despite the results of Iowa’s caucus, DeSantis’ backers are showing no signs of slowing their support as they previously took aim at Fox News after the network called Iowa for former Trump roughly 30 minutes after the caucuses began and before all the votes had been tallied.
Fox News, like other major media outlets, including the Associated Press, CNN and MSNBC, all called the race in the Hawkeye State early on Monday night, within the first half hour of the caucuses.
That didn’t go over well with DeSantis supporters.
“Fox news calls Iowa for a trump within less than 1% of the vote in, while they are yet to vote in some precincts and still tabulating votes in others. Orange Con Man may very well win but wait on actual results to call it!” one X user wrote. “Yep, Fox News @FoxNews is the Trump Worship Channel. Pathetic.”
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.