Jeff Roe, top strategist for the star-crossed DeSantis Super PAC, is resigning

Jeff Roe, the chief strategist of the leading super PAC backing Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential bid, resigned Saturday evening, the latest and perhaps most significant departure from the group, which has been consumed by unrest in recent weeks.

Since the day before Thanksgiving, the pro-DeSantis super PAC called Never Back Down has seen the resignation of a CEO and a board chairman, the firing of a second CEO along with two other top executives, and now the late-night quit of Mr. Roe.

“I can’t believe it ended this way,” Mr. Roe said wrote in a statement he posted on X on Saturday evening.

The decision to quit followed comments from the super PAC’s new chairman of the board, Scott Wagner, a DeSantis loyalist and Florida appointee, who had explained The Washington Post why the previous CEO and two others – all of whom had worked for Mr Roe – had been fired.

Mr Wagner accused them of ‘mismanagement and behavioral problems’ and of ‘numerous unauthorized leaks’. The Post reported that an attorney for these employees contacted Mr. Wagner, who subsequently revised his statement to substantiate these allegations.

“I cannot in good conscience remain associated with Never Back Down given the statements made in The Washington Post,” Mr. Roe wrote in a statement.

Mr. Wagner did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.