Report Details Turmoil Within DeSantis Campaign Over Messaging

Few names have been as closely linked to Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in recent years as Christina Pushaw, who served as his press secretary and joined his re-election campaign before taking on duties within the rapid response communications team during his ill-fated presidential bid.

According to a recent report, however, Pushaw’s controversial social media tactics led to her essentially being ostracized by top campaign officials, including Generra Peck in mid-2023.

In July, Pushaw reportedly erupted during a meeting with Peck, who was DeSantis’ campaign manager at the time.

“If you think I’m so off-message and bad at messaging, why are you cutting me out of messaging meetings … I’ll just f—ing quit!” she reportedly shouted.

The confrontation reportedly came on the heels of a series of social media posts by Pushaw and her team that drew backlash from the media, voters and even the candidate himself.

During an interview with former Fox News Channel host Megyn Kelly, DeSantis distanced himself from his own campaign’s online messaging strategy.

“So, look, we have people that are doing this rapid response,” he began. “I’m not putting my time into it at all. I mean, you know, they’re going and going back and forth. You know, there’s kind of a battle online. I’m not somebody who’s following that very closely. It’s just not my cup of tea.”

He went on to acknowledge that “there’s a place” for such social media provocation, but insisted that “people in Iowa and New Hampshire, you know, they’re not following the latest Twitter war.”

Of course, the DeSantis campaign never even made it to the New Hampshire primary, having been suspended days after the Iowa caucuses following the governor’s poor performance. 

The Pushaw incident is just one of several anecdotes addressed in a long-form article in The Messenger that outlines the many ways DeSantis’ bid to earn the 2024 GOP presidential nomination was stymied by his own missteps and overshadowed by front-runner Donald Trump.

Around the same time that Pushaw was reportedly threatening to quit, Trump campaign operative Chris La Civita offered an assessment that has since proven to be accurate.

“DeSantis never established dominance,” he said in July. “If you want to be the man, you’ve got to beat the man. Ron DeSantis is not the man. Donald Trump is the man.”