SC businessman who backed Trump twice joins PAC pushing DeSantis to run for president

South Carolina businessman Bill H. Stern, who served as Donald Trump’s 2020 state finance chairman, is joining an effort to elect Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as president.

Stern is joining Never Back Down, a political action committee encouraging DeSantis to make a White House bid, as a senior adviser.

“If we want to win in 2024, we need Gov. DeSantis to run for president, and that is why I am not only enthusiastically endorsing him but also joining the Never Back Down movement,” Stern said in a statement Thursday.

Stern endorsed former President Donald Trump in 2016 and was appointed by Trump to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council in October 2020.

Stern told The State he considers himself friends with former S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott and said he would never criticize Trump, but he said it is time for a change.

Stern called DeSantis young and energetic and pointed to how DeSantis won reelection in Florida, a traditional swing state, by 19 percentage points.

“I came to the conclusion that I’m looking for a candidate that can win the presidency,” Stern said. “I’m tired of losing elections. We need to win the presidency back. We need to win the midterms.”

Stern is president and CEO of Stern Development, a commercial real estate and investment company with an office in Columbia, and serves as chairman of the S.C. Ports Authority Board of Directors.

Last year, Stern also attended a DeSantis fundraiser in Charleston, the Post and Courier reported.

DeSantis is considering a run for president but has yet to jump into the GOP nomination race, which already includes Trump, Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy. Scott has launched an exploratory committee ahead of an expected run.

The Never Back Down PAC already has support in South Carolina, as state Sens. Josh Kimbrell, R-Spartanburg, and Danny Verdin, R-Laurens, have joined the effort.

DeSantis is scheduled to visit South Carolina Wednesday, April 19, with an event in Spartanburg.

Gaining Stern’s backing is a significant get for the DeSantis camp, said Rob Godfrey, a South Carolina political operative who served as an adviser for both Haley and Gov. Henry McMaster.

“Landing the support of Bill Stern, who has backed winners up and down the ballot over the years, is huge,” Godfrey said. “He has the financial means to make an immediate difference, the relationships to fundraise, and he has a long record of service to the state, and in the business community — and with those come a platform from which he can be an effective surrogate and win over additional supporters.”