DES MOINES, Iowa — Prospective Iowa Republican primary caucusgoers are pointing to Gov. Ron DeSantis‘s (R-FL) policies, rather than his personality, as another reason he is not connecting with the electorate.
The feedback coincides with DeSantis’s decision to focus more on policy, including with an economic address in New Hampshire on Monday, amid a slump in early polls compared to nomination front-runner former President Donald Trump and problems with small dollar fundraising.
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Before a Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) town hall in Ankeny, retired Grand Junction independent Dean Lyons, 58, queried DeSantis’s strategy to run to the right of Trump as his campaign reconsiders its tactics, such as being more nationally oriented, granting more traditional media interviews, and participating in his first bus tour of Iowa before last week’s Iowa Republican Party Lincoln Day Dinner fundraiser.
“He’s in trouble,” Lyons told the Washington Examiner of DeSantis. “I think it’s his message. I think he’s almost too far that way. And I’m going to be honest with you: If they elect Trump, [President Joe] Biden will be in again. And I think DeSantis, he was supposed to be the man, and he just hasn’t caught fire.”
Earlier that day, Kathy Harvey, 66, who could caucus for DeSantis, also expressed concerns about the governor being too right-wing after attending the launch of his two-day five-stop bus tour organized by his super PAC Never Back Down in Chariton.
“I’m very conservative. I know I am,” the Chariton musician said outside the Iron Horse bar and restaurant. “The majority of people — to me, it’s unfortunate — are going to the Left … and that’s why I think then he might not be as popular with some people today.”
But before DeSantis’s meet-and-greet with about 30 people, Brad Reece, 61, encouraged the governor to “stick with his conservative values” and “not vary away from that” after he rose to prominence, in part, because of his cultural, anti-woke policies.
“He needs to stand up for what he believes in and convince the voters that if he is the elected candidate … he will do what he says he’s going to do,” the Chariton farmer said.
“Between now and early next year when they have their primaries, in politics, that’s an eternity,” he added. “A lot of things can happen.”
The following day before another DeSantis meet and greet, this time in Oskaloosa with about 50 people, Jenna Belcher, 49, dismissed criticism regarding the governor’s retail politics skills hours after he told a child at the Wayne County Fairgrounds in Corydon that her slushy ice drink must have “a lot of sugar” in it and another it was “good to see” them.
“I haven’t even noticed that,” the Oskaloosa assistant said at the town’s Smokey Row Coffee. “The whole pandemic is really what caught my eye.”
John Bandsta, 67, and Leanne Hessing, 66, who were at the meet-and-greet as well, voiced their confidence that DeSantis could, in Bandsta’s words, “get our country back on track.”
“We need somebody new with some new ideas, and I like what DeSantis has done in Florida,” Hessing, a Pella home school teacher, said. “He has proven that he can change things for the better. Being president would be a much bigger job to do that, but I know he’s going to definitely try to make the change.”
Bandsta, an Oskaloosa farmer, additionally attributed DeSantis’s inability to break through to Trump, whom he describes as “overshadowing” the primary as the media simultaneously homes in on the governor after reporting on the former president for eight years.
“If Trump was not there, I think that DeSantis would do well,” he said. “There’s a lot of people that have not given up anything on Trump. Trump is their man, no matter what, and they’re not willing to look at other candidates.”
Bryan Person, 50, who is likely to caucus for Trump again, acknowledged the challenge with which DeSantis must contend to persuade supporters of the former president to back him instead because people have “mostly made up their minds.”
“It’s all based off of what he’s done. Nothing he says now will matter,” the Adel technology representative said of DeSantis. “Both with him or Trump, it doesn’t matter. He can’t say any more. Well, to me, it doesn’t mean anything.”
Trump averages 54% support in early national primary polls to DeSantis’s 18%, according to RealClearPolitics. Although the former president has a 36 percentage point advantage over the governor, the pair’s closest rival, biotechnology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, has 5%.
DeSantis announced his “Declaration of Economic Independence” policy in Rochester, New Hampshire, on Monday, a 10-point plan that he is adamant will counter the “decline of our nation’s struggling economy” and advocate the middle class by taking on “the elites, D.C. bureaucrats, and Communist China.” Two weeks ago, the governor released his “Mission First” military position.
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“You better ask an on-topic question because I’m not answering anything that’s not about the economy,” he told reporters afterward.
As of last week, DeSantis let go of about 40% of his original staff, and while campaign manager Generra Peck was retained, digital director Ethan Eilon was promoted to be her deputy. Though the governor raised $20.1 million during the second quarter of this year, about two-thirds came from donors who cannot contribute any more money, and $3 million can only be used during a general election. He has already spent $7.9 million.
