Dem
51
GOP
49
Currently, Nikki Haley is the flavor of the month, while Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is increasingly yesterday's news. And the bad news keeps rolling in, as Chris Jankowski, the CEO of the main DeSantis PAC, Never Back Down, resigned late Wednesday.
There have been many weeks' worth of rumors that the PAC was in turmoil, with significant disagreements about the proper strategy for the campaign going forward. There have also been rumors of tensions between PAC leadership and the DeSantis campaign. Hmmmm... we're not sure how that's possible, since the PAC and the campaign aren't supposed to coordinate at all. If they are doing so, that's a violation of federal law.
Jankowski is regarded as one of the best in the business, and so his loss is a big one for a campaign that's already flailing. He undoubtedly knows that the paychecks are going to stop sometime relatively soon, probably in March, and he also probably guesses that DeSantis will soon open fire on Donald Trump, in a last-ditch attempt to right the ship. Jankowski wants to remain employable in Republican circles, and so doesn't want to be around for that. Plus, with reports of shouting matches and near fistfights, the PAC's offices have clearly become a toxic workplace. Who wants to spend the holiday season going to work with a bunch of jerks, in service of a hopeless cause? Not Chris Jankowski, apparently.
As long as we're on the subject, there have been four polls of the Republican primary field in the last week. Here are the top three candidates in each:
| Pollster | Trump | DeSantis | Haley |
| Emerson | 64% | 8% | 9% |
| Morning Consult | 66% | 13% | 9% |
| HarrisX | 62% | 11% | 10% |
| Echelon Insights | 61% | 12% | 12% |
That's one where DeSantis' lead is (barely) outside the margin of error, and three that are a statistical dead heat. They are still playing for second place, of course, but within a couple of weeks, Haley is likely to overtake DeSantis in the polling averages of both FiveThirtyEight and RealClearPolitics.
In short, DeSantis has run the most disastrous campaign since... well, another Florida governor who thought he had the right stuff to be president. How great would it be if, in a last-ditch Hail Mary, the Governor announced that his new slogan is "Ron!"? (Z)