DeSantis kicks off presidential campaign
DES MOINES, Iowa — Facing Iowa voters for the first time as a presidential candidate, Ron DeSantis launched a multistate campaign blitz Tuesday designed to strengthen his position as former President Donald Trump’s chief Republican rival.
DeSantis was addressing roughly 500 people gathered at a suburban Des Moines church, the opening appearance in a three-state tour with 12 scheduled stops over four days. He moves to early primary states New Hampshire and South Carolina later in the week.
The appearance comes six days after a stumbling online announcement that raised questions about his readiness for the national stage. Beyond the glitchy launch, DeSantis opens his campaign looking up at Trump in the polls amid persistent questions about the Florida governor’s ability to connect with voters in person.
DeSantis’ Tuesday evening stop at Eternity Church in Clive, Iowa, is a conspicuous nod to the evangelical Christians who wield outsize influence in Iowa’s Republican presidential caucuses. His visit will give voters an opportunity to meet the new candidate just as he has been stepping up his criticism of Trump.
“He’s got a big hill to climb — and I think everybody would agree with that — to be able to convince people that he can overcome Trump, that he can do a job as good as, if not better than, Trump,” said Bernie Hayes, the Republican chairman in Linn County, where DeSantis plans to wrap up his Iowa jaunt Wednesday.
DeSantis has been assailed by Trump for months, including a round of fresh attacks this week.
Trump’s latest shots focused on DeSantis’ leadership as Florida governor during the pandemic. The former president wrote on his social media platform that Florida was “third WORST State in Deaths by Covid.”
“So why do they say that DeSanctus did a good job? New York had fewer deaths!” Trump wrote.
Meanwhile, a pro-Trump super PAC continued to run ads this week on Iowa television accusing DeSantis of wanting to raise taxes, a charge DeSantis has denied.
Kim Riesberg of Dallas Center, Iowa, attended DeSantis’ launch with her husband. She voted for Trump in 2016 and in 2020, but she said she’s not necessarily committed to him this time around. They wanted to attend because they are interested in DeSantis’ platform.
DeSantis is a “little softer,” the 59-year-old said, and “more appealing to the masses.”
Since Trump and DeSantis are competing for the same job, she understands it might be a bitter race. But “at some point, I would like to see them on the same team.”
Riesberg may have to wait a while.
DeSantis in recent days has pivoted from oblique swipes at Trump to direct questioning of the former president’s conservative credentials — notably, his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and his record on criminal justice — during a round of interviews with friendly media last week.
DeSantis called a bipartisan bill Trump signed in 2018 that reduced mandatory minimum federal prison sentences and allows a pathway for nonviolent offenders to reduce prison time “a jailbreak bill.” As a member of Congress, DeSantis voted for an early version of the measure, but he left Congress after he was elected governor and before the final, less strict bill passed.
DeSantis also said Trump wrongly “turned the country over to Fauci,” referring to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who helped lead the country’s COVID-19 pandemic response.
DeSantis announced his campaign May 24 during an online conversation with Twitter CEO Elon Musk. The audio stream crashed repeatedly, making it difficult for most users to hear the announcement in real time, a stumble campaign officials and others quickly dismissed as a minor setback.
DeSantis was undeterred in laying out his message that conservative legislative victories this year in Florida, chiefly on cultural topics such as restricting sexual orientation discussion in schools, are the antidote for what he calls a nation controlled increasingly by the extreme left. He also has gone after Disney, seeking to strip the state’s entertainment giant of its selfgoverning authority for opposing the state law that critics have dubbed “Don’t Say Gay.”