The DeSantis campaign has a new campaign manager. In what is being called a campaign “reload”, not a reboot, because the campaign doesn’t like the word “reboot.”

Generra Peck is out as campaign manager but she will remain as chief strategist on the campaign. No one asked me but I was surprised that she wasn’t replaced when the campaign began its reload. It seemed to me to be a no-brainer, given that the DeSantis campaign has not lived up to expectations. She was instrumental in DeSantis’s blowout re-election in Florida last November but she didn’t seem able to transfer that success to a national campaign.

The DeSantis campaign stalled in July and donors began to pull back, as advisers criticized the campaign’s spending pattern and large staff on the payroll. So, the campaign cut staff and expenses two times but advisers still weren’t happy with the changes. That is when DeSantis began to make himself more available to mainstream media and switched to small events, more one-on-one time with primary voters instead of relying on big events.

DeSantis asked James Uthmeier, his gubernatorial office’s chief of staff, to diagnose problems with the campaign and figure out if he could fix them. Then he asked Uthmeier to take the job. He is one of DeSantis’s most trusted and conservative advisers.

Three major positions have been reloaded. Uthmeier said DeSantis will win despite the naysayers and early polling.

“People have written Governor DeSantis’s obituary many times,” Uthmeier said in a written statement to The Messenger. “From his race against establishment primary candidate Adam Putnam, to his victory over legacy media-favored candidate Andrew Gillum [in 2018], to his twenty point win over Charlie Crist [in 2022], Governor DeSantis has proven that he knows how to win. He’s breaking records on fundraising and has a supporting super PAC with $100 million in the bank and an incredible ground game. Get ready.”

Joining Uthmeier as a deputy campaign manager will be David Polyansky, an experienced Iowa operative who boasts of never losing a Republican presidential primary in the first-in-the-nation caucus state. Polyansky is currently an adviser to the pro-DeSantis super PAC, Never Back Down. He spent extensive time with DeSantis this month on his repeat visits to the first-in-the-nation state, which is crucial to DeSantis’s chances against frontrunner Donald Trump.

The campaign’s senior adviser and pollster, Ryan Tyson, will have an elevated role along with Marc Reichelderfer, a seasoned political operative and Tallahassee lobbyist who is currently advising the campaign.

I love a good underdog story, don’t you? It will be interesting to see how this plays out. That is exactly how DeSantis should run right now – as the underdog and concentrate on voter contact. He should keep working through going to all 99 counties in Iowa and get the bragging rights to that accomplishment. It’s important to a lot of Iowa primary voters. Having Casey and the kids with him on the road humanizes him and lets voters get to know him as more than a successful governor. Have you heard Casey DeSantis’s story about her battle with breast cancer and how her husband stepped up and helped her get through it all? It’s a very moving story.

I’ve never accepted the narrative that DeSantis needs to show more personality with voters. He has plenty of personality, it’s just different than Trump’s huge presence in public. Republican voters have become used to Trump and how he conducts himself as he campaigns.

Uthmeier is 35 and does not have campaign management experience. He is a top political and policy adviser to DeSantis. They both are members of the Federalist Society. He has a reputation as being DeSantis’s always-on-offense conservative fixer. He sounds like a solid addition to the campaign.

We’ll know soon enough.