Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is the latest 2024 Republican candidate to join Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) at the lawmaker’s annual “Roast and Ride” event in Des Moines, Iowa, this weekend.
The motorcycle ride, scheduled for June 3, comes nearly one week after DeSantis launched his presidential campaign and as GOP lawmakers repeatedly return to the Hawkeye State, a crucial early nominating state in the 2024 presidential race.
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“He’s not afraid to take on the woke left, and you won’t want to miss what he has to say on June 3rd!” Ernst tweeted Tuesday.
The “Roast and Ride” will feature other special guests and 2024 hopefuls, including former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), and former Vice President Mike Pence, who has suggested he may enter the 2024 race sometime this month. Lesser known presidential candidates such as Larry Elder and Vivek Ramaswamy will also attend.
Former President Donald Trump is not a confirmed guest at the event, though he is the current GOP presidential front-runner. All Republican presidential candidates and hopefuls were invited to participate in the “Roast and Ride,” a fundraiser for Iowa’s Freedom Foundation, a Cedar Rapids-based group that advocates on behalf of veterans.
Any Republican attempting to wrestle the Republican presidential mantle from Trump will need to win Iowa’s first-in-the-nation GOP caucuses next year. For DeSantis, who remains Trump’s closest competitor, a win in Iowa is an absolute necessity to convince GOP primary voters he is a viable alternative to the former president and to convince the other lawmakers running for president to drop out and endorse him instead.
Yet he faces stiff competition as Trump and the other 2024 hopefuls repeatedly attack him, run negative ads against the governor, and campaign in the early nominating states. Haley, for example, though not polling as high as Trump or DeSantis, has held at least 22 events in Iowa.
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But DeSantis has support in his super PAC Never Back Down, which has raised millions of dollars and invested in ad buys in the Hawkeye State, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada. The group also began staffing up in Iowa even before DeSantis launched his presidential campaign.
It remains to be seen if Trump will eventually join the “Roast and Ride,” but given that he lost the Iowa caucuses in 2016 to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), a win in Iowa would cement his status as leader of the GOP.
