Ron DeSantis’ campaign has fired more than 40 percent of its original staff, a house cleaning that comes after concerns about how fast it spent money during its first six weeks.
All told, 38 staffers have been let go from the campaign since its May 24 launch, a move first reported by Politico.
“Following a top-to-bottom review of our organization, we have taken additional, aggressive steps to streamline operations and put Ron DeSantis in the strongest position to win this primary and defeat Joe Biden,” Generra Peck, DeSantis’ campaign manager, said in a statement to NBC News. “Governor DeSantis is going to lead the Great American Comeback and we are ready to hit the ground running as we head into tan important month of the campaign.”
An adviser familiar with the specifics said the campaign did not “kill,” or totally get rid of any specific department.
“We were just bloated. We had too many people, that’s absolutely fair to say,” the adviser said.
Staff cuts were a topic of conversation during a DeSantis donor retreat last weekend in Utah. Specifically, there were conversations about cutting the number of staffers focused on coordinating and setting up live DeSantis rallies and campaign events.
Moving forward, the campaign wants to focus more on earned media rather than expensive large scale events.