Ron DeSantis' Staff Exodus Stuns Experts as Campaign Loses 'Loyal Soldier'

The recent exodus of staff from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign appears to have shocked some with expert knowledge of political campaigns as the Republican looks to rest his drive for the White House.

The Republican's campaign has cut roughly a third of its staff, or 38 people, as part of an effort aimed at getting DeSantis' presidential bid back on track but the decision has raised questions.

Long-time DeSantis staffer Kyle Lamb has been revealed as one of the 38 people who've been let go by the campaign, a decision that was met with surprise by Peter Schorsch, the publisher of FloridaPolitics.com. Lamb was the campaign's director of research and data.

Newsweek reached out to the DeSantis campaign via email for comment.

"Just learning that @kylamb8 has exited the @RonDeSantis campaign; he, along with @ChristinaPushaw and @JeremyRedfernFL, was one of the most vocal defenders of RD during the pandemic," Schorsch tweeted on Monday. "I genuinely can't believe they let go of such a loyal soldier."

Schorsch is a former political operative in Florida and registered Republican whose website was the first to report on the FBI search of former President Donald Trump's residence at Mar-a-Lago, a major scoop.

Veteran Republican strategist Ed Rollins, who served as a political adviser to the late President Ronald Reagan, also questioned the decision to cut campaign staff during an interview with CNN on Monday.

"[DeSantis] makes dumb moves," Rollins said. "Controlling the budget is a very important part of a campaign. He raised a lot of money early on. You don't lay off a third of your staff a week before you're gonna announce in Iowa. You wait a couple weeks, you spread them out, do something with them, send them home.

"But you don't basically—I arrive, gonna run in Iowa, I haven't been managing my budget, I've got to lay off a third of my people. People say, well, the job you're running for is about management, among a lot of other things.

"So to me, everything he's kind of done, it's just—he's not a bad guy, he's a good guy. We've got lots of good guys running for the presidency, but you're not gonna beat Trump," he said.

Semafor first reported on Monday that Lamb was part of the DeSantis' campaign layoffs. Lamb was also quoted as apparently praising a widely criticized campaign video that included what appeared to be a version of the Sonnenrad, a symbol associated with Nazi Germany.

"This belongs in the Smithsonian," Lamb wrote, according to screenshots of a chat in Signal, an encrypted messaging app, seen by Semafor. The video was originally posted on the anonymous Twitter account Ron DeSantis Fancams and was subsequently deleted following significant backlash.

Former Republican strategist and Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson responded to Semafor's story on Twitter, writing simply: "Whoooooo wheeeee."

Lincoln Project senior adviser Tara Setmayer described the governor last week as tripping "over their arrogance so much at a time when they're supposed to be resetting their campaign" amid the campaign reset.