Several of the most prominent figures in Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign who have been attacking the Koch network for endorsing Nikki Haley over their boss have ties to the group themselves. Shortly after the endorsement was announced, DeSantis campaign national spokeswoman Carly Atchison and rapid response director Christina Pushaw took to social media boosting posts denouncing the Koch’s myriad of political organizations as part of the “establishment“, “sell outs“, and “pro-open border, pro-jail break.”
These things may be true. But it didn’t stop DeSantis’s own staff working for Koch projects for years, before finally snapping when their former billionaire benefactor picked a presidential candidate others than their own – and mostly due to their failures on the campaign trail.
Pushaw.
From 2017 to 2019, Cristina Pushaw worked for the Koch Network-backed ‘Stand Together’, where she served as a comms staffer. According to a 2021 profile, Pushaw considered working on the passage of President Donald Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as one of highlights of her career. Pushaw, who oversees much of the DeSantis campaign’s digital communications, blasted her former employer through the ‘DeSantis War Room’ account on X (formerly Twitter) – even posting a video insinuating the Koch Network backed Haley because she is a pro-corporation political moderate.
Carly.
Carly Atchison, while not a former Koch employee, praised the Koch-funded group ‘Yes Every Kid’ along with other non-profits in 2022 for their efforts in support of school choice in Oklahoma. At the time, Atchison – who served as Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt’s spokeswoman said: “We proudly worked with pro-school choice groups who share the governor’s same goal to fund students, not government-controlled systems.”
Yesterday the DeSantis campaign spokeswoman was boosting a social media post calling the Koch political organization, “…sell outs who have now decided to try and bandage Trump with another moderate, do nothing candidate to make him more palatable rather than fight to nominate a electable conservative who gets shit done.”
Cuccinelli.
The pro-DeSantis Never Back Down SuperPAC joined the anti-Koch social media pile-on, posting a clip of DeSantis suggesting Haley gained the endorsement by cozying up to the “political and economic establishments.” Ken Cuccinelli, who founded the Never Back Down SuperPAC, echoed the DeSantis campaign’s claims the Koch Network supports open borders. During his 2013 run for Governor of Virginia, Cuccinelli didn’t hesitate to accept a $50,000 contribution for the Koch’s, as well as attending their conferences and even being the beneficiary of major Koch fundraisers directly for him.
