Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will make his first trip to Iowa as a presidential candidate on Friday, just days before fellow Republican and former President Donald Trump is scheduled to campaign there.
Iowa could be especially important for DeSantis, who is expected to enter the 2024 presidential race later in the spring. The state will hold the first Republican primary early next year, and a victory there would demonstrate DeSantis’s viability as a candidate against Trump.
The former president is extremely popular in the state and has a significant organizational advantage as a result of his two previous presidential campaigns.
DeSantis will speak at events moderated by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds in Des Moines, the state capital, and Davenport, a river town. The trip is part of a series of events he’s been holding across the country in recent weeks to raise his national profile and court big-money donors.
Craig Robinson, a former Iowa Republican Party political director, believes Iowa voters are eager to hear from DeSantis, who polls show is Trump’s main rival for the nomination.
“There’s a lot of excitement around him,” Robinson said. “I believe Iowans will give him a fair hearing.”
Robinson warned that if DeSantis is to win the state and strike an early blow against Trump, he will need to engage in the type of extensive retail campaigning that has paid off for other Republican candidates.
Mike Huckabee in 2008, Rick Santorum in 2012, and Ted Cruz in 2016 all crisscrossed the state and pulled off surprise caucus upsets.
The only way to counter Trump is to “log the miles and meet Iowans where they are,” according to Robinson. “It’s a significant commitment.”
According to his campaign, Trump has already begun to assemble a campaign team in the state, which includes Eric Branstad, the son of former Republican Governor Terry Branstad.
Trump will travel to Davenport on Monday to outline his education plan at a campaign event. He will almost certainly address many of the same issues that DeSantis has in Florida, where he has opposed diversity and equity programs in schools as well as the teaching of gender-identity concepts to children.
The events in Iowa will be the closest the men have come to a head-to-head match-up ahead of a Republican primary that is still in the works.
The Democratic Party is attempting to shake up its 2024 primary calendar by replacing Iowa as the state that kicks off its presidential nominating process with South Carolina. However, the Midwest state will continue to serve as the first electoral test for Republican presidential candidates.
Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley entered the race in February, and other potential candidates such as former Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. Senator Tim Scott have visited Iowa recently.
Trump clearly sees DeSantis as a potential threat. His campaign began attacking the governor on Facebook earlier this month, and Trump has recently claimed that if elected president, DeSantis would seek to reduce Medicare and Social Security benefits.
Last week, DeSantis told Fox News that he would not “mess with” Social Security, which provides seniors with a guaranteed income.
In November 2024, the eventual Republican nominee will most likely face President Joe Biden. His re-election campaign is widely expected to begin soon.
