Trump, DeSantis take their brawl to Iowa

0
48



The 2024 GOP primary smackdown between former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis begins this week in Iowa, where pro-life, grassroots conservative voters offer Mr. DeSantis an opportunity to take a significant bite out of Mr. Trump’s hefty polling lead.

Mr. DeSantis, who announced his campaign on May 24, is holding an official kickoff event Tuesday in Des Moines, followed by several stops around the Hawkeye State on Wednesday.

Mr. Trump, who has been bashing Mr. DeSantis almost nonstop since he jumped into the race, won’t be far behind.



The former president plans to shake hands with voters at the Westside Conservative Club in Urbandale on Thursday, according to his campaign.

While Mr. DeSantis has barely begun to hit back at Mr. Trump’s regular attacks, things could get much uglier in Iowa, where he poses the greatest threat to the former president so far among a growing field of GOP candidates.

Mr. DeSantis has an opportunity to win over more of Iowa’s GOP base by promoting his conservative record as governor and his adherence to pro-life principles that put him to the right of Mr. Trump.

Iowa is considered a particularly critical state for Mr. DeSantis, 44. He significantly trails Mr. Trump nationally and in Iowa. A win, or a finish close to Mr. Trump in the Iowa Caucus, now slated for early January, could jolt him into a more competitive position against the former president in other early state contests.

“It’s about exceeding expectations,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center.

Among non-Trump GOP candidates, Mr. DeSantis is by far the leader. He earns double-digit support in every poll, compared to support in the low single digits for other non-Trump Republican competitors, such as former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina.

A poll released May 26 by Emerson College found Mr. Trump leading Mr. DeSantis among Iowa’s Republican caucus voters 62% to 20%. Ms. Haley registered 5% support, and Mr. Scott had 3%.

Mr. DeSantis could use his inroads with Iowa’s strong contingency of pro-life voters, who are poised to dominate the GOP caucus turnout, to close the gap with Mr. Trump.

His signature on a new Florida law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy has earned praise from pro-life groups in the state, while Mr. Trump’s criticism of the law as “too harsh” has been panned by the state’s pro-life contingency.

Bob Vander Plaats, who heads Iowa’s The Family Leader, a Christian group, said the Iowa Caucus was “flung wide open” by Mr. Trump’s views on abortion, including his refusal during a recent CNN town hall to back a national ban on the procedure.

Mr. Trump, however, remains extremely popular among Republicans in the state and has launched an aggressive campaign to diminish Mr. DeSantis, a former House lawmaker, in the eyes of Iowa voters.

Mr. Trump has touted his signature achievement for the pro-life movement — nominating three Supreme Court Justices who helped the high court overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

“Iowa is still pretty much a Trump state,” said Dennis Goldford, a political science professor at Drake University in Des Moines.

Moments after Mr. DeSantis launched his campaign on Wednesday, Mr. Trump blasted him for co-sponsoring a bill during his time in Congress that would have ended the renewable fuel standard, which requires blending ethanol, much of it derived from Iowa corn, into the nation’s fuel supply.

The campaign also highlighted Mr. DeSantis’s opposition to subsidies for U.S. farmers suffering from China’s retaliatory tactics after Trump imposed tariffs on China’s goods.

Mr. Trump promoted his move to authorize gas stations to sell ethanol-blend gas year-round, lifting a summertime ban, as well as other pro-Iowa actions he took while president, including trade policies that led China to make a $325 million corn purchase in 2020.

Mr. Trump promised, if re-elected, to make Iowa ethanol, a critical part of the state’s economy, “the center” of his effort to restore American energy production.

Iowa’s GOP caucus hasn’t picked a winning Republican presidential nominee in a competitive election year since George W. Bush in 2000.

In 2016, Mr. Trump lost Iowa to Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas before steamrolling through most of the other primary states and crushing the GOP field of 17 candidates to capture the nomination in May 2016.

The caucus has also been plagued with problems with quickly and accurately tabulating the results.

Yet Iowa remains one of the most important contests for measuring the early strength of presidential candidates.

If Mr. DeSantis loses badly in Iowa to Mr. Trump “that really seriously damages his campaign,” Mr. Goldford said.

Mr. DeSantis visited the state twice before his announcement and an aligned super PAC has hired nearly 200 volunteers who have already knocked on 27,000 doors. One of Mr. DeSantis’ main selling points, say his backers, is that he is better positioned to beat President Biden in November 2024 than Mr. Trump, who lost to Mr. Biden in 2020.

At a fundraiser picnic in Sioux Center in northwest Iowa, Mr. DeSantis took swings at Mr. Trump, without naming him.

Governing, he told voters, “is not about entertaining … building a brand or talking on social media and virtual signaling. It’s ultimately about winning and producing results.”


LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here