Gov. Ron DeSantis is back in Iowa, following the footsteps of one of the state’s most influential politicians.
The DeSantis campaign told media Saturday night that the GOP candidate is back on track to go “full Grassley,” an homage to the strategy employed by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, a longtime sitting Republican lawmaker from Iowa.
The game plan? Visit all 99 counties in Iowa before the caucuses. Grassley has a legacy of spending time in each county on a yearly basis, and as the longest serving Republican in the Senate, it’s a no-brainer for GOP presidential hopefuls to borrow from his playbook.
“The DeSantis family is back in Iowa for a three-day swing,” the media update said. DeSantis is on a “quest to visit all of the state’s 99 counties,” it added.
As of Saturday, DeSantis had visited 64 Iowa counties, giving him ample time to visit the remaining before the caucuses on January 15.
Iowa isn’t the only state to boast impressive campaign feats. Florida’s walkin’ Lawton Chiles famously completed a thousand-mile hike across the Sunshine State in 1970, an effort that helped him ascend to the U.S. Senate and later the Governor’s Office.
As the first state to officially weigh in on the primaries, the importance of Iowa can not be overstated. And winning Iowa requires understanding Grassley.
“Along with the sanctity of ethanol and the primacy of pork products, they eventually grasp this is Sen. Charles E. Grassley’s state,” Roll Call’s Jason Dick once wrote about primary candidates.
While former President Donald Trump appears to hold a commanding lead in Iowa, DeSantis is the consensus next-closest GOP candidate, according to the latest polls.
Before last week, DeSantis campaigned in California and joined six other Republican candidates in the party’s second debate of the season. One survey showed caucus-going Iowans enjoyed his performance at the debate more than any other candidate’s.
But of course, Trump skipped the debate and therefore wasn’t an option on the survey.
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