DeSantis Encourages Audience to Beat the Odds and Support Him in ‘Winning the Iowa Caucuses’

To emphasize the significance of Iowa to Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor continued campaigning there even as 2023 came to a close.

At a New Year’s Eve event in a Sheraton Hotel ballroom in West Des Moines, jeans and cowboy boots were more common than tuxedos and cocktail dresses, and Miller Lite was more popular than champagne.

The modesty of the event, attended by about 200 people for DeSantis’ last campaign event of the year in Iowa, downplayed its importance to the host, who has staked the future of his Republican presidential bid on the leadoff Iowa caucuses, just two weeks away.

“Are you ready to work hard over these next two weeks and win the Iowa caucuses?” DeSantis asked supporters at the suburban hotel on Sunday evening.

While Donald Trump prepares to return this week for a series of rallies, DeSantis did not leave Iowa alone during the week between Christmas and New Year’s. He campaigned in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and Davenport, revisiting spots he had visited in 2023 as part of his effort to visit all 99 of Iowa’s counties as a show of commitment to the leadoff nominating contests.

But Trump holds a significant lead in Iowa polls and has a sophisticated campaign organization in the state, posing a threat to deny DeSantis the win he needs to justify his claim as the leading alternative to the former president.

Appearing Sunday night with his wife, Casey, and their young children, DeSantis encouraged his audience to defy the odds.

“I think we have an opportunity to make a statement that in this country, it’s we the people that ultimately decide these things,” he said. “Because I think you have a lot of media, they don’t think you even matter.”

DeSantis was not the only one in Iowa between Christmas and New Year’s, a typically politics-free period. The earlier-than-usual Jan. 15 caucuses on the election-year calendar brought former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to eastern Iowa as she competes with DeSantis as a Trump alternative.

Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy also visited the state, holding more than two dozen Iowa events last week and over the weekend in an effort to remain part of the conversation despite reducing his advertising spending.

No one has more at stake in Iowa than DeSantis, who refocused a campaign that was initially seen as national in scope after summer staff changes prompted by overspending and internal disagreements. He stood on stage Sunday evening in West Des Moines with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and evangelical Christian leader Bob Vander Plaats, who have risked their own influence by backing DeSantis.

DeSantis and his supporters urged the audience Sunday to ignore polls that show him trailing Trump by a significant margin.

“Everywhere I go the polls do not match up with reality,” Vander Plaats told the crowd. “Going up in northwest Iowa — heavy Trump country — they all say the same thing to me. They like what he did, but it’s time to turn the page.”

DeSantis has an unrelenting Iowa schedule ahead of him beginning early this week. Trump, who has drawn hundreds — even thousands — more to fewer events, plans his own blitz over the final two weeks, including in deeply conservative northwest Iowa.