Steve Cortes, a key aide and spokesman for Never Back Down, is leaving the pro-DeSantis SuperPAC according to spokeswoman Erin Perrine. “Steve launched his own show and left his role as a spokesman for Never Back Down. He will continue to support Governor DeSantis in his personal capacity,” Perrine said in response to the departure of Cortes.
The New York Times’s Maggie Haberman reported that while “Cortes didn’t respond to a message asking about his status after his Twitter/X bio dropped the Never Back Down affiliation… his high praise of Trump in some public appearances had caught attention among Republicans.”
DeSantis super PAC aide @CortesSteve has left the group, per spokeswoman Erin Perrine. Sorry. “Steve launched his own show and left his role as a spokesman for Never Back Down. He will continue to support Governor DeSantis in his personal capacity,” she says.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) October 10, 2023
The departure of Cortes is just the latest blow to the DeSantis campaign as it continues to slide in state primary and national polls. The DeSantis campaign committee announced last week that they had raised just $5 million in the third quarter for the Republican primary contest. Ken Griffin, an early backer of the Florida governor’s campaign, blasted the lack of coherent messaging and indicated that he “has yet to decide who he plans to help.”
Last month, Cortes admitted on a Chicago radio show that Trump’s primary victory seemed inevitable. Cortes told the radio hosts regarding the likely Biden versus Trump contest in 2024, “It is a rematch that nobody wants yet it seems at this moment to be inevitable.”
The National Pulse has reached out to Cortes for comment.