- GOP presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis keeps hiring people to lead his campaign who have no national campaign experience.
- His campaign, so far, has been repeatedly hampered by self-inflicted controversies.
GOP presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis keeps putting rookies in charge as he attempts to take control of his sinking campaign.
When DeSantis launched his presidential campaign in May 2023, he chose trusted ally Generra Peck as his campaign manager. Peck, who managed DeSantis' 2022 gubernatorial re-election bid, had no experience working on a national campaign before being selected to helm his bid for office.
In the three months since DeSantis announced his presidential campaign as a potential frontrunner, Peck has had to guide the campaign through a series of self-inflicted errors, like when the campaign's "war room" Twitter account promoted an anti-LGBT video created by a campaign staffer or when a campaign staffer created a video featuring DeSantis and a pro-Nazi symbol.
The inexperience at the top may have hurt DeSantis' presidential ambitions. According to an average of the most recent major national polls by FiveThirtyEight, DeSantis only brings in an average of 15% support in Republican primary polling, 38.3 percentage points behind former President Donald Trump.
As his campaign continues to circle the drain, it would make sense for DeSantis to replace Peck with someone with ample experience working on presidential campaigns.
But DeSantis didn't do that. Instead, he elevated James Uthmeier, his gubernatorial chief of staff, to become his new campaign manager.
Uthmeier has no campaign management experience at all. But he does have years of experience working with DeSantis in an official capacity. The Messenger reported that Uthmeier had a hand in "nearly every conservative and controversial policy" that's occurred under DeSantis' leadership, including his war on local mask mandates, Florida's decision to reopen schools early after the COVID-19 pandemic, and DeSantis' attempt to redraw Florida' congressional map.
Many of the policies instituted by DeSantis with Uthmeier have been unpopular nationally, and the Florida governor desperately needs to gain as many new supporters as he can around the country.
The DeSantis campaign may be expecting some growing pains from Uthmeier in his new position, as it also named a new deputy campaign manager on Tuesday, David Polyansky, who, unlike Peck and Uthmeier, has ample experience working with presidential campaigns.
But even with Polyansky on his staff, DeSantis is betting the success of his campaign on rookies. And if hiring Uthmeier and Polyansky does lead to some positive movement for DeSantis in the polls, it might be too late for a comeback anyway.