Warning for a Republican Culture of Losing, Florida

government Ron DeSantis

courted voters on the battlefield of Iowa on Saturday in an attempt to weaken the former president

from Trump

hold on GOP Warning of a Republican culture of losing, Florida

government Ron DeSantis

wanted on Saturday to weaken former president

from Trump

grip on the GOP as he courted voters on the battlefield in Iowa.

DeSantis, who is expected to announce his 2024 presidential campaign any day, briefly flipped burgers and chops at a picnic fundraiser

in a vintage car museum

in Sioux Center that drew a hundred

S

from conservatives

the northwest corner of the state. From the stage, he emphasized his willingness to embrace conservative cultural battles and sprinkled his remarks with indirect lashes at Trump.

Governing is not about entertaining. Governing isn’t about building a brand or talking on social media and signaling virtues, said DeSantis, who wore a blue button-down shirt with no tie or jacket. In the end, it’s about winning and getting results.

Trump, a candidate since November, had hoped to demonstrate his political strength later in the day with a large outdoor rally in Des Moines, Iowa’s capital, but canceled the event.

because of

a tornado warning.

Voters in the state are estimating DeSantis and Trump, two Republican powerhouses who are among half a dozen GOP candidates already in the running or expected to announce their bids soon. Trump is well ahead of his rivals in early national polls, while DeSantis is widely seen as his biggest potential challenger.

Trump had hoped to return to the comfort of the campaign phase after a tumultuous week.

On Tuesday, a New York civil jury found him liable for sexual assault and defamation of opinion columnist E. Jean Carroll

,

other

ordered him to pay

from $5 million. A day later, during a controversial CNN town hall, he repeatedly insulted Carroll, repeated lies about his 2020 election loss, and downplayed the level of violence at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

DeSantis has polished his reputation as a conservative governor willing to push hard for conservative policies and even engage in a political battle with Disney, which he emphasized at Sioux Center. But he hasn’t shown the same enthusiasm to take on Trump, who has been focused almost exclusively on taking down DeSantis for months.

On Saturday, DeSantis avoided mentioning Trump’s legal entanglements or his falsehoods about the 2020 election, but he highlighted the GOP’s recent string of electoral losses. He didn’t say it explicitly, but the Republican Party has struggled in every national election since Trump’s 2016 victory.

We must reject the culture of loss that has influenced our party in recent years. The time for apologies is over, DeSantis said. If we get distracted, if we focus the election on the past or on other side issues, I think the Democrats are going to beat us again.

It is uncertain whether DeSantis’ political successes in Florida can be replicated on the national stage.

Even before he formally enters the race, he faces questions about his ability to woo donors and win over voters.

The visit to Iowa, his second in two months, is expected to help allay concerns about his sometimes-uneasy personal appeal as he met with Republican officials, donors and volunteers, all under the scrutiny of the national media. But DeSantis spent little time taking selfies or handshakes at Sioux Center, where more than 600 people had gathered to see him at an event billed as a family picnic for Republican U.S. House Representative Randy Feenstra.

Prior to the event, DeSantis met with state lawmakers who announced Thursday and Friday that they supported him for president. He left most of the politics to an allied super-PAC, which set up a table for supporters of his yet-to-be-announced presidential campaign to register.

The road outside

car

museum was flanked with 2024 campaign signs for DeSantis.

Trump’s team had expected more than 5,000 people to attend a rally Saturday at an outdoor amphitheater in downtown Des Moines

with the aim of gathering information about his potential supporters and encouraging them to commit to him

.

Trump’s campaign in Iowa in 2024, his mess in Iowa in second place in 2016, makes for a more disciplined, data-driven operation. Saturday’s event was planned to encourage attendees to sign up on a website so the campaign could connect with them, update them on how and where to meet and recruit volunteers.

In a social media post, Trump promised to move the event.

For Trump, the rivalry with DeSantis has become increasingly personal.

DeSantis has largely ignored Trump’s jokes, including suggesting impropriety with young girls when the governor was a teacher decades ago, questioning his sexuality, and calling him Ron DeSanctimonious.

Trump’s campaign began airing an ad mocking DeSantis for pushing himself for the former president in 2018 when he ran for governor, even using some Trump phrases as a nod to the latter’s supporters in Florida .

The Trump-affiliated super-PAC, MAGA Inc., has also aired spots highlighting DeSantis’ votes to cut Social Security and health care and raise the retirement age. The group even targeted DeSantis’ snacking habits by running an ad urging him to keep his pudding fingers off those perks. That was a reference to a report in

T

told the Daily Beast that several years ago the governor ate chocolate pudding with his fingers instead of a spoon on an airplane.

DeSantis has said he doesn’t remember that.

The pro-DeSantis super-PAC Never Back Down has hired Iowa staff and has begun organizing support for the governor ahead of his 2024 campaign announcement. The group announced Thursday that Senate President Amy Sinclair and the leader of the House majority, Matt Windschitl, would support DeSantis’ candidacy. On Friday, the super PAC rolled out the names of about three dozen more state legislators who would endorse it.

Two other important Republicans in Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds and U.S. Senator Joni Ernst were at the Sioux Center Saturday for DeSantis’ performance.

After his speech, DeSantis moved quickly through the crowd, chatting with voters as he was followed by reporters, TV cameras, and a security detail. He then ran outside to pose with Reynolds and Feenstra while tending burgers and chops at the grill.

Rock Valley’s Lyle and Sonia Remmerde managed to get a handshake. She said DeSantis seemed normal.

One of the things when you compare Trump and DeSantis, I think DeSantis has how do you say? a much smoother approach, said Lyle Remmerde, 65. He’s less abrasive.

Price reported from Des Moines. Associated Press writer Steve Peoples in New York contributed to this report.