DeSantis Kicks Off Campaign in Iowa 05/30 06:09

DeSantis Kicks Off Campaign in Iowa    05/30 06:09

   

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Ron DeSantis plans to kick off his presidential campaign 
in Iowa on Tuesday, the start of a busy week that will take him to 12 cities in 
three states as he tests his pitch as the most formidable Republican challenger 
to former President Donald Trump.

   The Florida governor's two-day trip to the leadoff caucus state -- starting 
at a suburban Des Moines megachurch and ending at a Cedar Rapids racetrack -- 
comes after a stumbling online announcement last week that formalized his 
long-anticipated entry into the growing Republican field. It will be followed 
by stops in early primary states New Hampshire and South Carolina.

   DeSantis' scheduled Tuesday evening stop at Eternity Church in Clive is a 
conspicuous nod to the evangelical Christians who wield outsize influence in 
Iowa's Republican presidential caucuses. His visit will give voters an 
opportunity to meet the new candidate just as he has been stepping up his 
criticism of Trump.

   "He's got a big hill to climb -- and I think everybody would agree with that 
-- to be able to convince people that he can overcome Trump, that he can do a 
job as good as, if not better than, Trump," said Bernie Hayes, the Republican 
chair in Linn County where DeSantis plans to wrap up his Iowa jaunt Wednesday.

   DeSantis, assailed by Trump for months, pivoted from oblique swipes to 
direct questioning of the former president's conservative credentials during a 
round of interviews with friendly media last week, notably his handling of the 
coronavirus pandemic and record on criminal justice.

   DeSantis called a bipartisan bill Trump signed in 2018 that reduced 
mandatory minimum federal prison sentences and allows a pathway for non-violent 
offenders to reduce prison time "a jailbreak bill." As a member of Congress, 
DeSantis voted for an early version of the measure but had left Congress after 
he was elected governor and before the final, less strict bill passed.

   DeSantis also said Trump wrongly "turned the country over to Fauci," 
referring to Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of 
Allergy and Infectious Diseases who helped lead the country's COVID-19 pandemic 
response.

   DeSantis announced his campaign Wednesday night during an online 
conversation with Twitter CEO Elon Musk. The audio stream crashed repeatedly, 
making it difficult for most users to hear the announcement in real time, a 
stumble campaign officials and others quickly dismissed as a minor setback.

   DeSantis was undeterred in laying out his message, that conservative 
legislative victories this year in Florida, chiefly on cultural topics such as 
restricting sexual orientation discussion in schools, are the antidote for what 
he calls a nation controlled increasingly by the extreme left.

   "American decline is not inevitable -- it is a choice," DeSantis said during 
the glitchy audio stream. "And we should choose a new direction -- a path that 
will lead to American revitalization."

   DeSantis has a running start in Iowa and other early voting states, thanks 
to Never Back Down, a super political action committee that is using money the 
group can receive in unlimited sums from wealthy contributors to begin 
organizing support for him. Campaign finance law requires the group to do its 
work without coordinating with DeSantis.

   Iowans should see staff and volunteers for the group working the perimeter 
of DeSantis' church event in Clive on Tuesday, as well as events Wednesday in 
conservative western Iowa's Sioux City and Council Bluffs and the manufacturing 
and college city of Pella in east-central Iowa before the finale in Cedar 
Rapids. By making his bid official, DeSantis gives the group a rallying figure 
whose events it can attend, even if cannot coordinate with DeSantis' official 
campaign group.

   The tack, untested and not without risks, is aimed at maximizing super PAC 
dollars. It's also a way of helping DeSantis race in Iowa to catch Trump, whose 
campaign says it has banked thousands of supporters thanks to a more 
disciplined, data-driven outreach effort than Trump's seat-of-the-pants 2016 
campaign. That operation landed him in second place but with thousands of 
potential supporters left uncontacted by the campaign.

   And Trump, besides his regular social media broadsides attacking DeSantis, 
has attempted to shadow him in Iowa to demonstrate his own popularity. In 
March, Trump headlined an event at a Davenport theater three days after 
DeSantis spoke to an audience and took questions from Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds 
during the Florida governor's tour promoting his memoir.

   Two weeks ago, Trump scheduled a rally in Des Moines to take place the same 
day DeSantis was headlining Iowa Republican events in western and eastern Iowa 
as the guest of Rep. Randy Feenstra and the state GOP. However, Trump scrubbed 
the outdoor event the day he was to arrive due to threats of severe weather.

   Turning the tables on Trump, DeSantis swooped into Des Moines that evening 
for an impromptu appearance that helped his campaign create the desired 
impression of him dancing in the ring with the heavyweight.

   Trump is scheduled to return to Iowa on Thursday, the day after DeSantis' 
tour, and is expected to hold events in the Des Moines area, meet influential 
conservatives and sit for an interview that evening with Fox News Channel host 
Sean Hannity.