Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis’s increasingly bitter rivalry will play out in Iowa on Saturday, setting up one of the most direct contrasts yet in what may become a battle for the Republican nomination for president.
The Florida governor’s appearance in Iowa marks another strong signal that he intends to enter the race. A previous visit to the Hawkeye state in March was billed as a book tour, and he skipped an appearance last month at an Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition event that provided the largest gathering yet of 2024 White House hopefuls.
But his appearance Saturday afternoon at a family picnic in the northwest Iowa city of Sioux Center (population: 8,407) shows he’s starting to commit to the kind of retail politics that Iowans expect. He’ll also headline a state party fundraiser in Cedar Rapids in the evening.
A half hour later and 105 miles away, former President Trump is going larger scale with one of his signature rallies at an outdoor venue in Des Moines that can accommodate as many as 25,000 people.
Previewing the likely tone of that speech, Trump mocked DeSantis’s political skills in a video on his Truth Social platform Friday.
“The problem with Ron DeSanctimonious is that he needs a personality transplant, and those are not yet available,” Trump said.
DeSantis didn’t respond and has held off from direct criticism of Trump, highlighting a challenge to his campaign: He wants to appeal to Trump voters who might consider a younger and less contentious candidate. He’s been holding private dinners to persuade donors he’s a drama-free alternative.
DeSantis and Trump come to Iowa at very different points in their campaigns. Trump has already been in the race for six months, while DeSantis is still weeks away from announcing his candidacy.
Trump is coming off an attention-grabbing primetime interview on CNN, where he refused to concede his loss in the 2020 election and lashed out at writer E. Jean Carroll, who won a $5 million sexual abuse and defamation verdict against him earlier in the week. DeSantis has been holding a series of low-profile dinners with potential supporters.
Iowa will be a critical test of whether any of Trump’s challengers can overcome the former president’s popularity with Republican voters.
A new poll of 500 likely Republican Iowa caucus voters released Friday showed Trump with an 18-point lead over Desantis, 44% to 26%. No other candidate received more than 10% in the National Research Inc. poll, which has a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.
DeSantis picked up two endorsements from prominent Iowa Republicans this week, from Senate President Amy Sinclair and House Majority Leader Matt Windschitl.
Trump already has endorsements from other high-profile Iowans, including former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, former US Representative Rod Blum, and dozens of state legislators. But Iowa’s Republican governor, two senators and most of the House delegation have pledged to remain neutral.
DeSantis, not known as a glad-handler, has been honing his retail politicking skills in Iowa and will appear at a family picnic hosted by US Representative Randy Feenstra Saturday. The second-term congressman from northwestern Iowa has run as a “a pro-Trump effective conservative” but has not made an endorsement in 2024. He’s previously hosted former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence, two other Trump rivals, at the annual picnic.
--With assistance from Mark Niquette.
