Pushaw leaves state office to join DeSantis’ campaign
Press secretary known nationally for incendiary rhetoric on Twitter
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ press secretary Christina Pushaw is leaving her $126,456 a year state job to join DeSantis’ reelection campaign.
On Twitter, Pushaw wrote, “Now, the gloves are off.”
Her resignation is effective Friday, according to a a letter sent to the governor’s office chief of staff.
“It has been an honor to serve the people of Florida under the leadership of Governor Ron DeSantis and his administration,” Pushaw wrote. The communications office “gave me latitude to respond to media narratives in direct and often unconventional ways ...”
Pushaw, hired 15 months ago, has gained national attention for her often incendiary rhetoric, in both her official role and on Twitter.
She most famously was slammed by Democrats and LGBTQ groups for being one of the first prominent Republican officials to smear those opposed to the so-called “don’t say gay” law as “groomers,” a term used to describe sexual predators.
Pushaw questioned whether neo-Nazis demonstrating in Orlando were actually Democrats and peddled a conspiracy theory that linked new COVID-19 rules in the Republic of Georgia with the Rothschilds, a family that has long been targets of anti-Semitic propaganda.
She wrote that the Food & Drug Administration, in its decision to halt the use of a monoclonal antibody treatment pushed by DeSantis, wanted to “kill people to harm Republicans.”
She was also temporarily suspended by Twitter for violating rules on “abusive behavior” in her criticism of an AP story linking DeSantis’ largest campaign contributor with investments in a monoclonal antibody manufacturer.
She warned the reporter that she would “put you on blast” if he didn’t retract it, later tweeting to her followers, “Light. Them. Up.”
AP stood by its reporting and said its
reporter was a target of threats.
Recently, she was the subject of a Washington Post story that said she “transformed the typically button-down role of gubernatorial press secretary into something like a running
public brawl — with Twitter as her blunt-force weapon.”
Mac Stipanovich, a Tallahassee political consultant and former anti-Trump Republican turned independent, said Pushaw joining the campaign was “inevitable.”
While her rhetoric will not change, “she no longer has the official imprimatur of the Executive Office of
the Governor,” Stipanovich said. “She is going to be working at the campaign, which, trust me on this, is a step down.”
The move to the campaign “changes the weight of her rhetoric, because while the kind of things that she says and does are extreme, even for campaign staff, her brand is much closer to campaign
tomfoolery than the dignity of the Executive Office of the Governor in the third largest state in the country,” he said.
Pushaw wrote that deputy press secretary Bryan Griffin would move into her role. Department of Health spokesman Jeremy Redfern will transfer to the governor’s office to become deputy press secretary.