DeSantis amps up Iowa campaign
Two great traditions converged in Des Moines on Saturday night when wedding crashing came to Iowa politics.
Iowa state Rep. Taylor Collins welcomed an unexpected guest to his wedding reception: Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. DeSantis and his wife, Casey, strode just behind the newlyweds into the event, held at a beauxarts-style building in the state's capital, to cheers and a standing ovation, according to videos posted on social media and confirmed by an attendee. They then spent an hour mingling with roughly 150 guests.
The last-minute tablegrabbers had been invited by the bride, Savannah Collins, to the surprise of her husband, who had previously endorsed DeSantis' presidential bid, according to two people familiar with the event. Several other state legislators who have endorsed DeSantis were also in attendance.
For DeSantis, who is struggling to gain ground on former President Donald Trump, according to recent polls, the appearance was a clear attempt to demonstrate that he possessed the interpersonal touch that has sometimes seemed lacking in his presidential campaign.
DeSantis' allies said he saw a path to victory in Iowa's January caucus through an aggressive plan to visit each of the state's 99 counties, meet voters in person and win endorsements from local officials. As of Saturday, DeSantis had visited nearly 30 counties.
After making fewer visits to the state than some of his lower-polling rivals for the Republican nomination, DeSantis recently started to step up his appearances in Iowa, where polling shows he is performing better than he is nationally. His campaign recently has focused on the state as he has worked to position himself as the Trump alternative after losing ground earlier this year.
Before dropping in on the wedding, DeSantis had spent Friday and Saturday on a bus tour of northeast and central Iowa, where he made frequent stops to address voters in small groups, answer questions and engage in the retail politics that Iowa voters expect, such as scooping ice cream for locals at a dairy store.
“You've got to show up in people's communities, and you've got to be able to make the case about why you should be the nominee of the party and the 47th president of the United States,” DeSantis told a group of several dozen voters at a Pizza Ranch restaurant in Grinnell, Iowa, on Saturday afternoon.
The comments were a thinly veiled attack on Trump, who has skipped events hosted by prominent evangelical Christian leaders and who recently picked a fight with Iowa's popular Republican governor, Kim Reynolds. “I think anybody who's not willing to do that is basically telling you that they don't think they have to earn your vote,” he continued. “And I think that's a mistake.”