Ron DeSantis’s campaign for President is on the verge of its most significant endorsement by way of the Governor of must-win Iowa.
The Never Back Down super PAC is spotlighting (and seemingly confirming) a report from NBC’s Dasha Burns that Kim Reynolds is set to endorse her fellow chief executive at a rally in the Hawkeye State Monday night.
DeSantis, who spent Saturday being upstaged on his home turf by rival Donald Trump at a Florida GOP conclave, effectively boots that and other controversies, including one about his footwear itself, out of the headlines with an endorsement he has openly courted since becoming an active candidate.
In a call with Iowa reporters just last week, DeSantis said that he’d “love” to have that endorsement.
“Obviously, I would love to have her support, formal support. I think it would be very, very meaningful. I think what she’s been able to do in Iowa has really been a model for how people should govern,” DeSantis said, before offering familiar ruminations about how “happy” Iowans tell him they are with her approach to leading the state.
DeSantis’ courtship of Reynolds’ “formal support” has been a running theme of his campaign, and even the book tour that functioned as a pre-campaign ahead of his formal launch.
In July, DeSantis attempted to capitalize on seeming antipathy from front-runner Donald Trump toward Reynolds, calling her a “a strong leader who knows how to ignore the chirping and get it done” who “earned a landslide re-election because she delivered big results.”
Even before formally launching, DeSantis held an Iowa book tour stop in March.
He called Reynolds “America’s Governor” amid mutually admiring remarks.
“This guy is a man on a mission,” Reynolds said at the time.
Ironically, DeSantis seemed like a more sure bet for the Republican nomination during the book tour than he does now. When he went to Iowa last winter, a Des Moines Register poll showed a dead heat between Trump and him.
Fast forward to today, and polling tells a different tale.
The latest Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll of 404 likely Hawkeye State caucus participants finds Ron DeSantis 27 points behind Donald Trump and tied at 16% with Nikki Haley.
Yet DeSantis’ campaign is undaunted.
A new ad (“Fight. Win. Lead.”) from the DeSantis campaign looks to tell a different story, one of the Florida Governor leading while President Joe Biden dithered on issues such as Israeli evacuation flights, rebuilding a bridge quickly after Hurricane Ian, and having “deployed troops” to the Mexican border.
“From sending planes to Israel to bring Americans home to safety, to rebuilding bridges in the days following a hurricane, he is the leader we need during a time of crisis,” reads the ad summary from the DeSantis campaign.
The spot is airing in Iowa with a $320,000 ad buy that started Thursday, which itself demonstrates strength according to the official spokesperson.
“The campaign’s ability to begin television advertising weeks earlier than originally planned is evidence of its strong fundraising pace in the fourth quarter, which only continues to accelerate,” reads the email from Communications Director Andrew Romeo.
Iowa’s 40 delegates will be doled out on a proportional basis after the Jan. 15 caucus results are finalized.
If there is one caveat, a recent poll suggests that Reynolds is less popular in her state than almost any Governor anywhere.
Morning Consult claims Reynolds “is America’s most unpopular governor, with a 47% disapproval rating, up from 39% in the first quarter of 2023. Her unpopularity increased partly because of a surge in negative sentiment among independent and Republican voters during a year in which she signed a strict anti-abortion law and took a lashing from former President Donald Trump over her apparent closeness with Gov. Ron DeSantis.”
The Trump campaign didn’t miss an opportunity to rip Reynolds, with a statement Sunday morning saying the Iowa governor “has begun her retirement tour early as she clearly does not have any ambition for higher office.”
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