In Iowa, DeSantis embraces campaign rituals — but keeps some distance

“I can’t believe … that Supreme Court, court ruling with the California stuff,” the Florida governor said, turning to Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on his right. He was apparently referring to a recent decision that upheld a ban on certain pork sales.

It was a relevant reference here in the top pork-producing congressional district in the country. But it was also a neat encapsulation of the Florida governor’s preference for policy talk over chit chat as he goes through the rituals of a bid for national office. Making final preparations for a campaign expected to launch by early June, DeSantis returned to the first-in-the-nation GOP caucus state on Saturday with fresh legislative achievements and a slew of Iowa endorsements — but also facing doubts about his viability against Donald Trump.

Critics say DeSantis can be socially awkward and neglects the personal touches valued by other candidates. The governor and his allies have worked to counter that notion. On Saturday evening, DeSantis sat down with Iowa GOP chair Jeff Kaufmann for a question-and-answer session that largely focused on his day-to-day life and family, including his wife’s cancer diagnosis.

Even as DeSantis has stepped up his engagement in face-to-face politics, and a super PAC supporting him has worked to highlight his background, some allies are ultimately betting that voters will come around to a candidate whose presentation centers on results in the face of Trump saying his rival needs a “personality transplant.”

“Governing is not about building a brand or talking on social media and virtue signaling,” DeSantis told the several hundred attendees in a speech at Saturday’s picnic, making an apparent jab at Trump and his online tirades. “It’s ultimately about winning and about producing results.”

DeSantis’s ability to engage up-close with voters and go off-script was under intense scrutiny Saturday as participated in the traditional circuit of campaigning in a state where individual interactions are valued. He mingled with VIPs at a private reception. He greeted voters — this time not separated from the crowd by bike racks, which appeared at his Iowa events earlier this year. He stopped by a Pizza Ranch restaurant, where he delighted the mother of the manager, Sue Dykstra, who finds DeSantis as a person far more appealing than Trump.

“I really like Trump’s policies … but he’s not a good man,” Dykstra said. “I would not want to sit down and have dinner with him.”

Trump was expected to hold a dueling rally Saturday in Des Moines but canceled it in the afternoon, citing an area tornado watch and saying the event would be rescheduled soon. Few people were present at the time as rain poured down.

DeSantis made his way to the same area for an unpublicized stop Saturday night, speaking to a crowd from a restaurant tabletop with his wife, according to the Des Moines Register. Trump and DeSantis also showcased competing slates of endorsements from Iowa Republicans.

Senate President Amy Sinclair and Iowa House Majority Leader Matt Windschitl endorsed DeSantis just ahead of his visit, headlining a list of more than three dozen state lawmakers throwing their support behind the governor, according to Never Back Down, the super PAC promoting the governor. Trump’s campaign announced the support of more than 150 elected officials and others across Iowa.

The Florida governor has been less open to media scrutiny than many other 2024 hopefuls as he hits the trail — and that showed on Saturday. He mostly ignored questions at the picnic from reporters — a contrast to Feenstra and last year’s headliner, Nikki Haley, now a presidential candidate herself. DeSantis beelined from a deviled egg stand to his car at the end of the picnic as cameras followed, ignoring a question about a six-week abortion ban he recently signed.

In his home state, DeSantis has been doing more up-close conversations with Republicans, hosting a steady stream of supporters and potential backers in Tallahassee, in what one person familiar with the meetings likened to the “George W. Bush front porch strategy,” when politicians flocked to Texas to sit down with then-governor Bush ahead of his presidential run.

Some Iowa voters also wanted more answers to specific questions and more opportunity for a back-and-forth with him. Cinda Van Der Zwaag, a farmer, had taken note of DeSantis’s shifting comments on the war in Ukraine and went into the picnic hoping he would “nail down his stance.” No luck, she said afterward — “I’m waiting.”

“I would love it if it was a town hall style,” said Dustin Rodger, who cited Iowa Sen. Charles E. Grassley’s willingness to take more questions. But Rodger, who wore a DeSantis hat, was effusive about the governor’s track record in Florida and is eager for “somebody with the same fiscal conservative policies and a common sense agenda, but without all the other distractions.”

DeSantis and his backers are trying to recapture the momentum he had earlier in the year — pitching donors on the governor’s ability to beat President Biden in swing states, working to counter the endorsements Trump has already lined up and taking sharper swings at the former president still beloved by much of the GOP. Trump is positioning himself as the inevitable nominee but has to contend with renewed GOP questions about his electability after a New York jury found him liable for defamation and sexual abuse — allegations he’s denied.

“If we make [the] 2024 election a referendum on Joe Biden and his failures, and we provide a positive alternative for the future of this country, Republicans will win across the board,” DeSantis said Saturday. “If we do not do that — if we get distracted, we focus the election on the past or on other side issues … Democrats are going to beat us again.”

Representatives for DeSantis did not respond to a request for comment ahead of his visit, while Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump’s campaign, referenced Trump’s commanding leads in GOP primary polling and also general election surveys that show him ahead of Biden. “That’s why he has support from U.S. senators, congressional members, elected officials and grass-roots activists,” Cheung said.

The challenge of criticizing Trump while also courting his voters was clear this past week as Never Back Down ramped up its attacks, drawing some rebukes from vocal DeSantis supporters on social media. Responding to Trump’s CNN town hall, the PAC and its staff took aim at Trump’s handling of issues important to the GOP base: guns, abortion and a southern border wall. It also highlighted his time spent talking about the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob; his false claims the 2020 election was rigged; and his defense of comments about how famous men can carry out unwanted sexual advances.

DeSantis gave his most direct response to some of Trump’s attacks last week, telling Newsmax that Trump is employing Democratic talking points on his record on Social Security. But so far he’s stayed away from Never Back Down’s blunter attack lines.

The governor’s team feels that Trump’s onslaught “may be hurting his head-to-head numbers but it’s not really hurting his favorability numbers,” said one attendee at a recent dinner with DeSantis, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. They added, “They’re gonna counterpunch when they think it makes sense … They’re not anti-Trump.”

Trump’s team has pressed its advantage to rack up endorsements before DeSantis is officially in the race, locking down the support of much of the Republican congressional delegation from Florida — including a longtime DeSantis ally, Rep. Byron Donalds, and another congressman who said DeSantis has been unresponsive to his outreach.

Trump’s campaign and allies at his super PAC have been highlighting more supportive statements this past week, from West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) — who said on Fox News that he’s confident Trump can win the election — to Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of a national antiabortion group, who said she had a “terrific meeting” with Trump.

DeSantis advisers have been reminding donors that it’s early in the race, laying out plans to spend particular time in Iowa and New Hampshire and noting that national polls don’t capture the dynamics in early primary states, according to people who joined the governor and his team in Tallahassee recently for small-group dinners and briefings. DeSantis’s team has long estimated privately that some 30 percent of Republican voters will back Trump no matter what but expressed optimism they can lead among the rest, people who’ve spoken with them say.

The dynamics of the presidential race have changed significantly since Trump and DeSantis nearly crossed paths in Iowa two months ago, as Trump appeared more vulnerable and the Florida governor was just starting his book tour. Trump’s team tried to draw a pointed contrast with DeSantis on style, taking audience questions at his rally and making an unannounced stop.

DeSantis made sure to mingle with voters on his book tour stop back in March — but the trip still showcased the potential challenges ahead for a policy-focused governor sometimes criticized as aloof. Sitting for a radio interview with the Des Moines host Simon Conway — 13 minutes of unscripted banter — DeSantis met some of Conway’s jokes with dead seriousness and gave a detailed explanation of the legislative calendar involving “sine die” and “line item veto.”

Speaking at an event hosted by the Republican Party of Iowa in Cedar Rapids on Saturday evening, DeSantis touted his record in Florida. After his remarks, DeSantis answered some personal questions from Kaufmann alongside his wife, Casey DeSantis.

DeSantis recalled meeting Casey at a golf driving range, and later marrying her at Walt Disney World — drawing laughter as he joked “who would have thought” he would be fighting with Disney now, a reference to an escalating legal battle.

He laughed as he described bringing two of his children along on his recent international trip, and the jet lag they experienced. “This is part of being a parent, but our son, he passed out that afternoon so we’re all getting ready to go to bed at like 11 something at night. All of a sudden, he wakes up and he’s on that time, and he’s hungry,” he said to laughter.

Casey DeSantis spoke about her work as first lady of Florida, and touted her husband as “the embodiment of the American Dream” who is “fighting for our children just as much as he’s fighting for your families.”

“He is exactly what you see behind the podium as he is at home,” she added.

In an interview with The Washington Post in advance of the event, Kaufmann said that he was eager to get personal with the governor. “I know we’ve been told to give time for him to interact,” Kaufmann said, adding that as an interviewer he has a “reputation for bringing out some real human moments in these folks.”

Wells reported from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Isaac Arnsdorf contributed to this report.