Ex-Trump official Cuccinelli launches PAC urging DeSantis to enter 2024 race
By Kristen Holmes, CNN
Ken Cuccinelli, a former senior official in the Trump administration, officially launched a super PAC on Thursday urging Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to run for president in 2024.
The organization, NEVER BACK DOWN PAC, filed paperwork in late February with the Federal Election Commission and is the fourth political committee created to encourage DeSantis to enter the presidential race.
“I have been speaking to many grassroots conservative activists around the country who are very enthusiastic for Governor DeSantis to run for president in 2024,” Cuccinelli said in a statement. “The energy is there, grassroots conservatives see the governor as a leader and a fighter with a winning conservative track record who will lead the Republican Party to victory in 2024. Based on those conversations, I am most confident that we will build an unmatched grassroots political army for Governor DeSantis to help carry him to the White House.”
Several of the independent pro-DeSantis PACs are run by former Trump supporters and allies. In 2022, “Ready for Ron” was launched by Ed Rollins, a former adviser to Great America PAC, and political strategist and former Trump supporter John Thomas announced “Ron to the Rescue” in November. Another, “Run, Ron, Run!”, filed organizing paperwork with the FEC on Wednesday.
Cuccinelli, who served as acting deputy Homeland Security secretary under President Donald Trump, was a notable figure in the former president’s attempts to use his administration to pursue unfounded election fraud claims after the 2020 election and was a frequent presence around Trump’s Oval Office.
The House select committee reported that Cuccinelli fielded an inquiry from Trump and his top advisers about the executive branch seizing voting machines after the election, but Cuccinelli said his department didn’t have that authority.
Yet Cuccinelli had also messaged then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in November 2020 about Dominion voting machines, which Trump’s advisers falsely believed were part of a fraud conspiracy in the election, according to the committee’s final report.
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CNN’s Steve Contorno contributed to this report.
