4 ways DeSantis and his allies burned through $160 million
Ron DeSantis and an allied super PAC spent a combined $160 million over the course of his presidential bid. He dropped out of the race before the New Hampshire primary.
Federal filings made public on Wednesday underscore just how loosely the Florida governor’s campaign and the pro-DeSantis super PAC Never Back Down spent their cash, even as donor interest in DeSantis’ presidential ambitions tapered off and his poll numbers declined.
The rapid clip of spending ultimately earned DeSantis a distant second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses. After pulling in $145 million last year, Never Back Down entered January with just $14.5 million left in the bank. DeSantis’ campaign finished 2023 with $9.7 million, though much of it could not be used in the Republican primary.
Here’s how DeSantis and his allies burned through their money:
A hefty travel budget
DeSantis’ campaign spent nearly as much on travel in the fourth quarter of 2023 as it did on its payroll costs, the filings show: about $833,000 in total.
While most of that money went to standard travel costs, like hotels, car rentals and commercial airlines, more than half of the campaign’s travel spending – nearly $457,000 – was paid to TMFB Management Services, a business travel company owned by Craig Mateer, a campaign donor whom DeSantis previously appointed to the State University System’s Board of Governors.
The filings don’t make clear how much DeSantis’ campaign dropped on private air travel – a luxury that it spent heavily on in the opening months of his presidential bid. The New York Times previously reported that Never Back Down had taken on the responsibility of paying for DeSantis’ private flights.
The super PAC dropped millions of dollars on transportation costs in the second half of 2023; about $3.5 million, according to the group’s latest filings. That includes roughly $913,000 paid to luxury bus company Premiere Transportation and more than $250,000 for TMFB.
Big ad buys
For much of his presidential bid, DeSantis outsourced much of his advertising and media production to Never Back Down, which spent roughly $30 million on those costs, its filings show. For its part, DeSantis’ campaign dropped only about $2 million on media placements.
It’s not unusual for super PACs to spend heavily on advertising, but the massive spending underscores the extent to which DeSantis’s campaign relied on Never Back Down to market the governor and his message to voters.
Never Back Down’s advertising eventually caused friction between the super PAC and allies of DeSantis, who disagreed with some of Never Back Down’s messaging tactics.
Late last year, amid signs of upheaval at the group, Never Back Down and DeSantis’ leadership PAC Great American Comeback began shifting resources to another super PAC, Fight Right, which was formed in November by several DeSantis allies. Federal filings show that Fight Right received $9.6 million in transfers from Never Back Down between Nov. 20 and Dec. 19, while DeSantis’ leadership PAC gave Fight Right about $2 million.
Later in December, Fight Right transferred $1.9 million to another super PAC called Good Fight. Together with Fight Right, the groups spent nearly $10 million on advertising by the end of the year.
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Canvassing
Never Back Down took on the role of building a massive canvassing and field organizing operation to boost DeSantis, and spent generously to make it happen. In the second half of the year alone, the super PAC poured some $23 million into the effort, making it the group’s single largest expense.
DeSantis’ campaign, on the other hand, did not report spending any of its own money on canvassing or field operations, its filings show.
The reliance on Never Back Down to build out a field operation in the early voting states – and especially Iowa – is unusual, since such efforts are typically handled by campaigns themselves. The super PAC frequently hosted events featuring DeSantis and ferried him across the early states on bus tours, allowing his campaign to cut back on travel expenses.
But given the federal prohibition on coordination between campaigns and super PACs, the responsibilities outsourced to Never Back Down put much of DeSantis’ presidential hopes in the hands of an outside group over which he had no control.
Millions paid to consulting firms
DeSantis’ campaign and Never Back Down paid tens of millions of dollars to firms controlled or owned by Jeff Roe, the prominent Republican strategist who served as a top adviser to the super PAC.
Filings show that Never Back Down directed at least $36 million to a handful of firms affiliated with Roe. The group paid Roe’s main consultancy Axiom Strategies more than $220,000 in the last half of 2023, as well as another $11.2 million to Vanguard Field Strategies, the canvassing arm of Axiom.
The group’s biggest payment went to Axiom’s ad-buying subsidiary AxMedia, which received a staggering $24.5 million from Never Back Down. Most of that money was paid to television stations to run the ads, though AxMedia received a commission for its work.
DeSantis’ campaign also listed Axiom among its consultants, paying the firm more than $100,000 in the fourth quarter of the year, according to the Wednesday filings.
This story has been updated to include additional information about payments made by Never Back Down to AxMedia.
This story was originally published February 1, 2024 at 3:02 PM.