‘Freedom is here to stay’: Super PAC backing Ron DeSantis 2024 to debut national ad

There’s a new ad backing Ron DeSantis’ pending run for President debuting Monday.

The spot is part of a 2024 electioneering campaign by Never Back Down Inc., a PAC formed in February by Ken Cuccinelli, who previously led the Department of Homeland Security under former President Donald Trump.

It’s the second video the group has produced in the last two months depicting DeSantis as a reasonable, benevolent and stalwart defender of freedom, as comfortable among everyday Americans as he’d be effective in the White House.

Titled “Anthem,” the ad opens with an aerial shot of a Norman Rockwell-esque farmhouse surrounded by prairie-like flatlands. Shots of mountains and the ocean, sans white foam, appear later. Over its minute runtime, it covers a lot of bases.

“When the world went mad, we stood as a refuge of sanity,” several voiceover speakers say in succession, referring to DeSantis’ reopening Florida just months into the pandemic.

Short clips of American iconography — black-and-white photos of settler families, bunting flags and a young baseball player stepping up to the plate — lead into the first appearance of DeSantis in the video as he walks onstage to enthusiastic cheers.

A shot later in the video shows the baseball player’s last name is Reichert, which translates from German to “powerful ruler.” DeSantis was a star ballplayer in his youth.

“Whether forged in our upbringing, built on the belief to compete and win or cemented in service through veterans,” the speakers continue over flashes of photos of military service members, including DeSantis, who served as an officer and Navy lawyer.

The ad juxtaposes and transposes the Governor with an elderly veteran, a stockroom worker, a warehouse owner (or union leader, though that’s unlikely), a mother walking her child to school and a woman holding a Bible.

“Across the country, men and women are willing to fight, standing up for our children, their education and a better future, pushing back against the woke Left and unleashing a next-generation economy,” the speakers say.

At precisely the 40-second mark, DeSantis speaks for the first time in the video through a clip of him talking about parental rights in education, part of a concerted push by Republicans to reshape schools in Florida and also the title of a law he signed last year restricting classroom discussion of LGBTQ people.

“You’re coming after the rights of parents. I’m standing in your way,” he says before the ad cuts to a separate speech in which he declares, “Freedom is here to stay.”

Then the voiceovers return: “Freedom is worth fighting for. We — we — we — never back down.”

Never Back Down Inc. is one of several organizations unaffiliated with DeSantis pushing for him to seek the Republican nomination. Veteran political strategist Ed Rollins launched the “Ready for Ron” movement last year. And the Ron to the Rescue organization likewise posits that DeSantis is “DeFuture.”

Other members include Heather Barker, a former fundraising director for DeSantis’ statewide political committee who joined Never Back Down Inc. last month; Phil Cox, an adviser to DeSantis’ re-election campaign; Kristin Davison, an adviser to Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin; David Polyansky, an adviser to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2016 campaign; and former top staffers from Trump’s unsuccessful re-election bid, including Erin Perrine and Matt Wolking.

___

A.G. Gancarski and Drew Wilson of Florida Politics contributed to this report.