Ron DeSantis Says Endorsements Shouldn’t Be Criticized; Campaign Promptly Complains of AFP Backing Haley

DeSantis
Michael Dwyer/AP
Nick Gilbertson

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) said Monday night that candidates do not “always have to lash out” and levy attacks when a rival receives an endorsement, but his campaign did exactly that hours later on Tuesday morning. 

When news broke that Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity Action (AFP), which reportedly plans to spend millions of dollars in the GOP primary, endorsed former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC) for president on Tuesday morning, the DeSantis campaign issued a press release rife with sarcasm that was critical of Haley, former President Donald Trump, and the AFP. 

“Congratulations to Donald Trump on securing the Koch endorsement. Like clockwork, the pro-open borders, pro-jail break bill establishment is lining up behind a moderate who has no mathematical pathway of defeating the former president,” DeSantis campaign Communications Director Andrew Romeo said. 

“Every dollar spent on Nikki Haley’s candidacy should be reported as an in-kind to the Trump campaign. No one has a stronger record of beating the establishment than Ron DeSantis, and this time will be no different,’ he added. 

Just hours before, on Monday night, DeSantis was on Laura Ingraham’s show, the Ingraham Angle, on Fox News Channel, where he suggested that criticism of those who have endorsed him is “out of bounds.”

“And you know, if somebody endorses somebody other than you, you don’t always have to lash out and attack the person who made the endorsement. It’s a primary. People can have different choices in this, and there’s not always an ulterior motive,” DeSantis said.

“So I think the attacks against Bob Vander Plaats have been a bit out of bounds, just as I think the attacks against Gov. Kim Reynolds have been out of bounds,” he added.

He had been speaking with Ingraham regarding Trump and his supporters’ allegation that he had garnered an endorsement for financial reasons:

Well, this PAC I don’t control, as you know, but they paid for advertising. So it’s a very influential group of evangelicals in Iowa. They’ve hosted a number of major events. They had a summer event; we just had the Thanksgiving forum. So they’re paying to be able to be in programs and to be able to advertise the candidacy. And that happens, that’s frequently happen [sic], but Bob Vander Plaats’ endorsement is not for sale. He’s got a great reputation. He’s become a friend of Casey and me along the way. He’s very influential in Iowa.

Missing out on the AFP endorsement is a major blow to DeSantis, as it signifies major anti-Trump establishment Republican donors are starting to make their decisions about who they see as the best candidate to challenge the 45th president down the stretch in a more consolidated field. 

As ABC News’s Kelsey Walsh noted, CEO Emily Seidel wrote in an AFP memo circulated Tuesday that Haley gives “America the opportunity to turn the page on the current political era.”

Polling released in an AFP memo shows that Haley is in second place behind Trump in both New Hampshire and Iowa. In New Hampshire, Trump leads with 40 percent of the vote, followed by Haley at 25 percent. DeSantis finds himself sixteen points behind Haley at nine percent. 

In Iowa, Trump holds 44 percent support, while Haley and DeSantis are neck-and-neck at 17 percent and 16 percent, respectively,

The memo did not specify field dates, sample sizes, or margins of error. 

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