Candidates typically target front-runners, which makes the pro-DeSantis attacks on Haley surprising.
“Never Back Down, the pro-DeSantis group, is now running an ad online attacking Haley, has polled Twitter users on a new nickname for her, and accused her in a tweet of ‘trying really hard to audition’ to be Trump’s vice presidential pick,” Politico’s Alex Isenstadt and Natalie Allison report.
The shift in strategy reflects a changing dynamic in the race, according to the report, which notes that the pro-DeSantis PAC is seeking to preserve a two-way race with Trump by clearing the rest of the field.
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Donald Trump has opened up a commanding lead in the most recent 538 polling average, with 51.1 percent of Republican voters backing the former president. DeSantis is second with 23.8 percent and Haley a distant fourth with 4 percent. Former Vice President Mike Pence is third with 5.5 percent.
Justin Clark, a Republican strategist who served as Trump’s 2020 deputy campaign manager but currently has no role in the 2024 race, believes the shift in strategy reflects a new assessment of the race within DeSantis ciricles.
“This is the DeSantis team acknowledging that he is closer to the field than he is to President Trump,” Clark told Politico.
Never Back Down’s attacks on Haley followed her taking a swipe at DeSantis over his dispute with Disney when she floated the idea of moving the theme park to South Carolina during a recent Fox News interview.
Never Back Down shortly afterward began released a digital ad featuring clips of Disney employees highlighting Disney’s promotion of pro-LGBTQ themes, which concludes with an image of Haley and Mickey Mouse holding hands.
The ad is part of a coordinated strategy, Politico reports.
Erin, a spokesperson for Never Back Down, assailed Haley for siding with Disney in its dispute with the Florida governor.
“It’s a bad strategy to defend Woke Disney when they decided to defend the sexualization of children,” Perrine said in a statement obtained by Politico.
”It’s mind-boggling [that] any Republican would side with a massive corporation that has an unprecedented level of self-governance over protecting children and families, but I guess 2023 is a strange time.”
