DeSantis Secures Endorsements on Visit to Iowa in Preparation for Likely 2024 Bid – During his visit to Iowa, a key early-voting state, Ron DeSantis, the conservative governor of Florida, received a significant number of endorsements from state legislators, which he hopes will boost his potential Republican presidential bid.
The pro-DeSantis Super Pac Never Back Down revealed that 37 Republican Iowa state senators and representatives, including the state senate president Amy Sinclair and the state house majority leader Matt Windschitl, have endorsed DeSantis. In an interview with the Des Moines Register, Sinclair praised DeSantis, saying that he stands “head and shoulders” above other Republican presidential candidates including Donald Trump and that the choice is “an easy endorsement for me”.
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Windschitl echoed similar sentiments, telling the outlet: “We need somebody that’s accountable to the people that has proven in their state that they can do this job and take that same prosperity and spread it throughout America.” Despite facing a challenging few weeks, DeSantis is scheduled to make an appearance in Iowa, which is the first state in the Republican nomination process. His former ally and the leading Republican frontrunner, ex-president Donald Trump, has criticized him several times and is currently leading in polls.
Furthermore, DeSantis’ recent international trip was considered underwhelming, and he has encountered difficulty in impressing some prominent Republican donors. DeSantis and his wife, Casey, were present at the Feenstra Family Picnic organized by state representative Randy Feenstra in Sioux Center on Saturday. DeSantis’s trip to the state is seen as an early effort to influence Iowa Republicans, who will participate in an outdoor rally hosted by Trump later in the evening in Des Moines.
At the fundraising event, DeSantis highlighted his conservative achievements in Florida’s ongoing cultural battle. He boasted about banning abortions, preventing diversity and inclusion programs, and passing legislation that permits residents to carry concealed weapons without a government-issued permit. “In Florida, we are a freedom zone permanently,” DeSantis said, adding: “I think we need to restore sanity in this country,” as the crowd applauded loudly while eating hamburgers.
“If you look at what’s going on in Washington DC, if we were sitting here ten years ago and someone told you we would be over $31tn in debt, you would not have believed that was the case and yet the Democrats keep borrowing and saving like drunken sailors,” he said ahead of the elections in which he is expected to soon formally announce his candidacy as Trump’s chief challenger. “If you compare how Florida’s managed or Iowa’s managed to states governed by leftist politicians, it’s like night and day,” DeSantis continued.
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The governor appeared to also take a veiled jab at Trump. “We must reject the culture of losing that has impacted our party in recent years. The time for excuses is over,” DeSantis said, referring to a series of electoral losses suffered by Republicans in the 2020 election and the 2022 midterms. “If we get distracted, if we focus the election on the past or on other side issues, then I think the Democrats are going to beat us again,” he told the crowd of several hundred conservatives.
