Pro-DeSantis super PAC chairman Adam Laxalt steps down days after CEO quits
The chairman of Never Back Down, the most prominent super PAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 2024 presidential campaign, has resigned.
Adam Laxalt, who unsuccessfully ran for one of Nevada’s US Senate seats in 2022, stepped down as chairman of the group on Nov. 26, four days after the super PAC’s CEO abruptly resigned, a source confirmed to The Post.
“After nearly 26 straight months of being in a full-scale campaign, I need to return my time and attention to my family and law practice,” Laxalt wrote in a letter to the Never Back Down board of directors, according to the New York Times.
Laxalt, who is also the former attorney general of Nevada and a friend and former roommate of DeSantis, noted that he is still committed to the Florida governor becoming president, according to the outlet.
Laxalt joined Never Back Down in April. He was previously a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump and served as a campaign co-chair for the ex-commander in chief in Nevada.
“I don’t see a path for him to win Nevada in a general election,” Laxalt said of Trump in June.
“Those voters are not coming back,” he added, pointing to Trump’s two narrow losses in the Silver State in 2016 and 2020.
Trump endorsed Laxalt’s 2022 Senate bid.
His resignation comes amid a period of significant turmoil at Never Back Down.
The super PAC’s former CEO Chris Jankowski stepped down just days after a brawl nearly broke out at one of the group’ strategy meetings last month.
Never Back Down board member and DeSantis confidante Scott Wagner reportedly had to be physically restrained from going after one of the group’s political consultants, Jeff Roe, the founder of Axiom Strategies, during a discussion centered on countering former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s rise in popularity.
“Never Back Down’s main goal and sole focus has been to elect Governor Ron DeSantis as President,” Jankowski said in a statement at the time. “Given the current environment it has become untenable for me to deliver on the shared goal and that goes well beyond a difference of strategic opinion.”
The Florida governor and his wife, Casey DeSantis, have grown increasingly frustrated with Never Back Down’s leadership, according to multiple reports.
The super PAC is no longer running ads in Iowa amid concerns that voters too easily connect Never Back Down to DeSantis and their spots are actually hurting the governor, according to reports.
At the couple’s urging, a new DeSantis-aligned super PAC – Fight Right Inc. – was launched last month The group was seeded with $1 million in funding from Never Back Down, a move blasted as “exceedingly objectionable” by the group’s director, former Trump administration official Ken Cuccinelli, according to NBC News.
DeSantis was in Palm Beach, Fla., on Monday wooing potential donors for Fight Right, according to the New York Times.
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