A Key Adviser Returns to DeSantis’s Main Super PAC

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/06/us/politics/desantis-pac-upheaval.html

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The super PAC that has been supporting Gov. Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign has brought back an adviser who left the group months ago, the fourth major change at the highest ranks of the organization in recent weeks.

The adviser, Phil Cox, had left the super PAC, Never Back Down, this spring and is now coming back to the group, according to an email that Scott Wagner, the PAC’s board chairman, sent Wednesday. Mr. Cox will return as a senior adviser and will oversee Never Back Down’s “budget, field and turnout operation,” the email said.

Mr. Wagner’s message also announced the elevation of a handful of other staff members but did not mention who would fill a prominent vacancy: its chief executive.

The return of Mr. Cox marks the latest shake-up at Never Back Down and comes as Mr. DeSantis has been struggling to slow the momentum of Nikki Haley, who has surged in polls after strong debate performances. The rolling turmoil inside an organization that has played a critical role in shaping Mr. DeSantis’s candidacy has been a behind-the-scenes distraction as the Iowa caucuses quickly approach in January.

First, the super PAC’s chief executive, Chris Jankowski, resigned before Thanksgiving. Then the chairman of the group, Adam Laxalt, resigned. Then Kristin Davison, who had been named chief executive days earlier, was fired over the weekend, along with two other senior officials.

Mr. Cox, who had served in a top role on Mr. DeSantis’s 2022 re-election campaign for Florida governor, had left the super PAC when it became clear that Jeff Roe, a veteran Republican strategist who was Senator Ted Cruz’s campaign manager in the 2016 presidential race, would have operational control of the group.