Top Ron DeSantis PAC spokesman admits ‘we are way behind’

The spokesman for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ super PAC gave a frank assessment of the 2024 race, admitting ‘we are way behind’ and calling former President Donald Trump the ‘runaway frontrunner.’ 

Steve Cortes, a former Trump surrogate who now is the spokesman for DeSantis’ Never Back Down PAC, participated in a Twitter Spaces discussion Sunday night with the anonymous Twitter user CryptoLawyerz. 

Cortes said he switched to team DeSantis because he believed the governor was more electable than Trump – but that’s if he makes it out of the Republican primary.

‘Right now in national polling we are way behind, I’ll be the first to admit that,’ Cortes said. ‘I believe in being blunt and honest. It’s an uphill battle but clearly Donald Trump is the runaway frontrunner.’ 

Cortes said he believed the primary – which has attracted at least 11 mainstream Republican candidates – was really down to two people, Trump and DeSantis. 

Steve Cortes, the spokesman for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ super PAC, participated in a Twitter Spaces conversation Sunday night and gave a frank assessment of the 2024 Republican primary race 

Cortes said he believed the Republican primary was a two person race despite there being at least 11 mainstream candidates. He said it was between former President Donald Trump (left) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (right) 

He said that DeSantis was the ‘clear underdog.’ 

‘In the first four states which matter tremendously, polls are a lot tighter, we are still clearly down,’ he said. ‘We’re down double digits, we have work to do.’ 

In Iowa, the state that holds the first GOP caucus, Trump currently has a 21.3 percent advantage over DeSantis, according to the Real Clear Politics polling average. 

In New Hampshire, that number stretches to 26.6. percent. 

In South Carolina, DeSantis performs a little bit better – but Trump is still beating him by 19.7 percent. 

There hasn’t been significant public polling done yet for Nevada, which is also generally one of the first four states that hold primaries or caucuses.

While Cortes became politically involved thanks to Trump, he decided to switch to team DeSantis because he was looking for the ‘most conservative, most patriotic populist, most electable candidate.’ 

Trump, he said, ‘unfortunately has not gained voters.’ 

‘I think he has shed quite a few,’ Cortes said. 

Cortes still spoke warmly of Trump – and said a tough primary against DeSantis would help the former Republican president. 

‘If we do not prevail – and I have every intent on winning, I didn’t sign up for this to come in second – but if we do not prevail I wil tell you this, we will make President Trump better for having this kind of primary,’ Cortes said.  

On Monday, Trump’s campaign had a field day with Cortes’ comments, highlighting the quotes and a Politico article about the Twitter Spaces interview. 

‘Ron DeSantis is losing badly and Donald Trump is a patriotic populist. Those are two very true statements. Both were said last night by SteveCortes, spokesman for DeSantis’ Super PAC Never Back Down,’ an email from the Trump campaign said Monday. 

‘Between DeSantis’ awful launch on Twitter Spaces to Cortes’ nighttime confessional, the DeSantis Camp should maybe take a break from the medium,’ the Trump campaign also said. 

DeSantis’ presidential announcement on Twitter was plagued by glitches and was branded a flop.