Former Top DeSantis Spokesman Endorses Trump For 2024 - 'Only Trump Can Save America'

On Wednesday, former DeSantis Super PAC Never Back Down spokesman Steve Cortes announced that he would be supporting leading Republican presidential candidate and 45th President Donald Trump after his decisive victory in Iowa on Monday evening. With all caucusgoers counted, Trump secured 51 percent of the vote while Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) came in second with 21.2 percent, former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC) came in third with 19.1 percent, and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy (R-OH) was only able to win 7.7 percent support. 

Cortes, who previously worked for the Trump campaign in 2016 and 2020, stepped down from his role at Never Back Down in October after the Super PAC struggled due to internal differences on the direction of the DeSantis campaign. Never Back Down has seemingly failed at its mission to get DeSantis across the finish line to win the Iowa caucus, with the Florida governor not even winning a single county and actually losing support nationally. According to the Five Thirty Eight national polling average, DeSantis sits in third with only 11.6 percent support, while former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC) has 11.9 percent support, and Trump has 63.1 percent backing of Republican primary voters nationally.

"I believed that Republican voters were ready for a new post-Trump chapter of the America First movement. I now believe I was wrong," Cortes began in his Real Clear Politics op-ed. "Those of us who backed Ron DeSantis – or the other Republican candidates – should read the room. Former President Trump winnowed the field effortlessly and then crushed the remaining three candidates in Iowa. He leads in the polls everywhere else. It is time to coalesce and unite behind the clear preference of the GOP grassroots, Donald John Trump."

"We do not have the luxury of further internal strife and instead must gird for an epic battle this autumn against our opponents who are inflicting daily damage upon America. Any further time, capital, and effort spent attacking the frontrunner, especially with Democratic Party-like talking points, only dilutes the power of our cause as we head toward November," he continued, adding that Trump's dominance of the race is thanks to his perceived outsider status by voters and his the constant weaponization of the judiciary by left-wing prosecutors against him.

"At such a flashpoint in history like this one, political unity among conservatives is an imperative. A second Biden term would risk the permanent loss of our republic as we know it. Moreover, the very plausible scenario of Vice President Kamala Harris taking over for a weakened Biden makes the already troubling outcomes even more bleak," he wrote before listing off the various failings of the Biden administration.

"So, what is the solution to this present crisis? How do we save America?" Cortes asked readers. "It is time to unify behind former President Trump as he leads the battle against the ruling class and the oligarchs intent on destroying the American way of life. I implore all patriotic populists to join as I pledge to do all I can to work for Trump's cause, just as I proudly did in 2016 and 2020. With the America First movement acting fully in concert, we will win a historic electoral victory that leads to a full restoration of American greatness."

As President Trump's dominance of the race is all but certain, supporters of Gov. DeSantis and former Gov. Haley are beginning to jump ship and back the 45th president. Trump's primary competitors have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on their campaigns against him with little to show for it. Trump is the Republican nominee for 2024, and conservatives should unite behind him to take back the White House on November 5.

Read Steve Cortes' full op-ed here.

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