Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has let go 38 people who had been working on his 2024 Presidential campaign. The July 25 move, which eliminated around one-third of his campaign staff, comes as he continues to trail former President Donald Trump in the polls badly. The reduction includes 10 people whose announced departure occurred several weeks before the new round of staff trimming.

To date, DeSantis’ campaign has been much like the month of March in that he came into the campaign like a lion but is presently conducting matters like a lamb. DeSantis should, by most measures available, readily appeal to all conservatives save the most strident “give us Trump or give us death” element, yet his message is not only failing to reach the public at large but also successfully impact the conservative community.

Of course, the mainstream media, which loathes and fears DeSantis, is doing everything within its power to keep him on the back burner. There is also the factor of Trump’s star power and larger-than-life presence sucking almost all of the oxygen out of the Republican primary process to date, plus Trump targeting DeSantis, if anything, even more than Joe Biden. Nevertheless, even though it is well-known in more knowledgeable conservative circles whose members are the most likely voters in primaries, DeSantis’ record is not striking the responsive chord it was widely assumed would immediately resonate with voters the moment he tossed his hat into the ring.

This duly noted, it also bears mention that DeSantis supporters have no reason to panic. At the time of this writing, there are 173 days until the Iowa caucuses. There are 28 days until the first Republican presidential candidates debate. This early out, unless someone absolutely smokes or totally chokes, the debate will matter little, if at all, as no one save hardcore political junkies will be paying a lick of attention. Also, Trump has hinted at skipping the debate, which would automatically guarantee minimal viewership. DeSantis has more than sufficient time to kick his campaign into gear by running on his record and getting the word out directly to potential voters.

Part of DeSantis’ record as governor includes a recent news item that has surprisingly flown under the radar. On July 20, DeSantis announced that as part of his commitment to the Florida public workers’ pension fund receiving the maximum benefits from its investments, he has requested that Florida State Board of Administration Interim Executive Director Lamar Taylor investigate whether Anheuser-Busch InBev has failed in carrying out its fiduciary duty to shareholders. Florida owns $53M of Anheuser-Busch InBev stock, this constituting .0294 percent of Florida’s pension fund, estimated to be $180B.

We’ve kneecapped ESG in Florida.
 
So I’m calling for an investigation into AB InBev’s actions regarding their Bud Light marketing campaign and falling stock prices.
 
All options are on the table and woke corporations that put ideology ahead of returns should be on notice. pic.twitter.com/B3frLY4f30

— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) July 21, 2023

While Anheuser-Busch InBev’s ever-growing cluster over its Bud Light endorsement debacle continues to roll downhill courtesy of the company’s stubborn refusal to grasp reality, whether a state investigation should occur is debatable. If a company, for any reason, decides to commit financial suicide, its shareholders can go one of two routes. They can demand the head or heads whose flawed decisions have brought about the company’s downturn, if not utter downfall, on a silver platter. Or, they can dump the stock and take whatever loss comes with doing so as opposed to a complete wipeout should the company fail. If, in the shareholders’ view, the company can come back, that is the preferred path, given how if their efforts are successful, they will not only not lose money but stand to gain based on how well the stock performs following the turnaround. Since thus far, Anheuser-Busch InBev has shown no ability or willingness to understand how it continues to destroy its own brand by failing to disown and repudiate its dalliance with Dylan Mulvaney utterly, is the company worth looking into? Or is it high time to cut and run?

So no, the Ron DeSantis for President campaign is not in danger of disintegrating before the first ballot drops in the box. That said, an immediate performance improvement is strongly recommended.