Iowa Voters Praise DeSantis’s Retail Politicking Despite His Campaign’s Summer Struggles

ATLANTIC, Iowa — After a cruel summer of campaign layoffs, viral gaffes and sagging polls, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis criss-crossed Iowa corn fields and freeways this week to try and bring some life back into his struggling campaign.

Voters seemed to like it. 

DeSantis embarked on a nine-stop campaign swing around Iowa on Thursday and Friday in the lead-up to his Saturday appearance at one of the state’s biggest political events: The Iowa State Fair. He shook hands, took questions and posed for photos during the trip. 

The Florida governor has faced scrutiny in recent months for his struggle to connect with voters, and videos of DeSantis having awkward interactions are prone to going viral online. But Iowans who came out to size him up were positive about his performance in interviews with The Messenger. 

Prior to DeSantis’s speech at a restaurant in Atlantic, retired teacher Cathy Hanson said she was unsure about DeSantis’s retail skills. Afterward, it seemed like he may have changed her mind. 

“I feel like he would be just the best for all of us,” Hanson, who backed Trump in 2020, said after shaking DeSantis’s hand at a meet-and-greet. “There's all kinds of different people here and he was very warm with everyone.” 

It’s welcome praise for DeSantis, who is betting big on Iowa. The governor expects to win the first-in-the-nation caucuses, he told reporters this week, although polling shows well behind frontrunner and former President Donald Trump. 

“I'm seeing a lot of support that I didn't know was there,” said Gene Hardisty of Greenfield, who came to see DeSantis speak at the Menlo Freedom Rock. When it comes to worries about DeSantis’s ability to connect, Hardisty said it is par for the course: “Everybody has people that criticize them.”

A day earlier, DeSantis noted in a Tipton restaurant that he had already visited more than two dozen counties and plans to make it to all 99 — something that politicos call a “full Grassley” in a nod to GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, who has represented Iowa since 1981.

The event was put on by the Never Back Down super PAC, which hosted DeSantis on a bus tour around the Hawkeye State. Super PAC staff ushered the press out of the Tipton Family Restaurant six minutes after DeSantis arrived while he stayed inside and talked to patrons without the cameras. The super PAC took similar efforts to move the press away from DeSantis 10 minutes after he began speaking with voters at Waspy’s Truck Stop in Audubon on Friday. 

His performance at Waspy’s impressed even one Democrat who came to see him.

“I think he did really well connecting with them,” said Ana Galvan, a travel nurse and coffee shop manager who lives in Audubon. She’s a Democrat who supported President Joe Biden in 2020, but not enthusiastically, and hasn’t decided who she will back in 2024. 

“I am generally leaning towards Democrat or liberal. So, interesting to see him talk about different gender policies and the discrimination that he's outwardly backing behind that,” Galvan said. 

Still, it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Campaigning in the aisles of the truck stop, the Florida governor appeared to wipe his nose before touching a man’s hat and shaking his hand. And DeSantis’s first campaign stop of the morning on Friday was derailed by a pair of pro-abortion protesters with a cowbell and a megaphone. They called DeSantis names like “pudding fingers” and “racist fascist” and demanded he “go back to Florida” when his super PAC campaign bus arrived at the Menlo Freedom Rock. 

It was difficult for the small group of attendees and reporters to hear the governor over the chanting. 

Afterward, protester Heather Ryan held her middle finger in the air as the Never Back Down super PAC campaign bus drove away with DeSantis on board. Ryan is the executive director of Bitches Get Stuff Done, a PAC based in Bondurant, where she lives. She told The Messenger that a TikTok follower tipped her off to the low-profile DeSantis campaign event 

“The goal of the protest was primarily to make Ron DeSantis feel unwelcome in Iowa. He is trying to take away the rights of half of America and I would like at least 30 seconds of him feeling unwelcome,” Ryan said. She’ll support “whomever is not a Republican” in the 2024 election.

DeSantis, who signed a six-week abortion ban into law as Florida's governor, faced abortion questions at two other campaign stops on Friday. Jessica Montsinger told DeSantis the American Legion in Harlan that she had pregnancy complications that nearly killed her. She asked what he’d do to fix the “broken” Supreme Court, which she said seems to have more power over abortion rights than elected members of Congress.

“I'm sorry to hear about what happened with you,” DeSantis said, before promising to put “good justices” on the Supreme Court. Montsinger stood and tried to respond to DeSantis’s answer, but the governor left the stage as Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” began to play.

And at the earlier stop in Atlantic, Louise Fredericksen of Indianapolis asked DeSantis how he’ll talk about abortion to independent women who are leaning towards Democrats in the general election. The governor said he’ll “speak from the heart” about what he believes. Fredericksen was impressed.

“I was pleasantly surprised. You hear how he doesn’t connect, I thought he connected beautifully,” Fredericksen said. She backed Trump last election cycle and is undecided this time around.