Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds’ endorsement this week of Ron DeSantis for president a little more than two months before the Iowa caucuses could give the Florida governor a bit of a lift, but it very well could hurt the state GOP’s future prospects.
Former President Donald Trump, who leads DeSantis by nearly 30 percentage points in the latest Iowa poll, has clearly expressed his dissatisfaction with Reynolds’ rallying around DeSantis — especially after he accused Iowa’s popular governor of playing political footsie with DeSantis earlier this year.
Trump could make things very difficult for a state GOP that would like to maintain its first-in-the-nation caucus status.
“If Trump wins the nomination, the potential harm to the GOP caucuses’ first-in-the-nation status is obvious. If he remains the head of the national GOP, I can’t imagine he would hesitate to retaliate by pushing to reorder early states or eliminate caucuses altogether,” Kathie Obradovich, editor of political news site the Iowa Capital Dispatch, said in a column Tuesday.
She added, “The Republican Party of Iowa’s eight years of blind loyalty to him will count for nothing.”
Trump could well hold a good deal of sway in determining the GOP nominating schedule, just as President Joe Biden has in the Democratic National Committee’s reshuffling of the Democratic Party’s calendar — changes that bumped Iowa Dems out of their coveted kickoff caucus position for 2024.
Trump has repeatedly reminded Iowa Republicans that he has and will continue to protect Iowa’s first-state status.
Time will tell a number of things, however, including whether the former president takes his grudge with Reynolds out on the Republican Party of Iowa.
A couple of things are certain right now: He is the far and away frontrunner in the field of GOP presidential contenders, and he holds a big grudge against Iowa’s Republican governor.
Trump, already labeling DeSantis a turncoat for jumping in the race after the former president endorsed his run for governor, declared Reynolds’ endorsement “will be the end of her political career.”
“Two extremely disloyal people getting together is, however, a very beautiful thing to watch,” Trump sarcastically wrote on Truth Social. “They can now remain loyal to each other because nobody else wants them!!!”
In August, Trump blasted Reynolds for getting particularly politically cozy with DeSantis and his wife, Casey. Reynolds, who said she wouldn’t rule out an endorsement before Iowa’s kickoff caucuses in January, has insisted she would welcome with open arms the long list of GOP presidential candidates as they campaign across the Hawkeye State.
But Trump and his campaign seemed to see the writing on the wall that Reynolds would get behind the Florida governor.
Trump advisor Jason Miller did not return a request for comment.
The question is, will Trump remain loyal to red state Iowa if he goes on to win the 2024 presidential election in a little less than a year? He has admitted he could do without caucuses.
“I don’t love the caucus system, by the way,” Trump told Des Moines rally-goers in his first run in 2016. “I like to vote! I like when you walk in and vote and leave.”
Still, he pledged then, as he has since, that Iowa’s first-in-the-nation status in the GOP presidential nominating process would remain intact if he’s elected. And Iowa voters have returned the favor. Trump has won the state by solid margins in his presidential campaigns.
There’s a long way to go and a lot of potential eventualities before the next election, not the least of which is the combined four criminal indictments the former president faces as he campaigns.
While Trump leads his closest rivals in Iowa — DeSantis and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley — by 27 percentage points in the latest Des Moines Register, NBC News poll, Reynolds’ blessing could help DeSantis gain some ground in the final two months, some pundits believe.
University of Iowa political science professor Tim Hagle told the Washington Examiner that Reynolds’ endorsement comes with organizational advantages for DeSantis.
“When she makes an endorsement, and especially something as important as [a] presidential endorsement, she’s probably going to be out on the stump helping DeSantis,” Hagle said, adding that Iowans are watching the race more closely during this “crunch time.”
The DeSantis campaign is banking on the “massive and rare endorsement,” coming just in time for Wednesday’s Republican presidential primary debate in Miami, according to an email sent to Iowans on Tuesday afternoon. At the very least, the DeSantis camp believes it will help check Haley’s rise in the polls. She’s tied with DeSantis, at 16 percent, in Iowa.
That’s still a long way behind Trump’s 43 percent support in the Hawkeye State.
In endorsing DeSantis, Reynolds pushed the narrative that both DeSantis and Haley have been campaigning on that Trump “can’t win” in a general election.
That’s become an increasingly difficult sell.
A New York Times-Siena College polling released this week shows Trump beating Biden in five of six critical battleground states.
This week’s endorsement came as little surprise to some pundits.
“Kim Reynolds has been promoting and campaigning with Rob DeSantis for months now. Over that time period, DeSantis has dropped like a rock,” Trump backer and Republican strategist Alex Bruesewitz told the Examiner, mocking the Florida governor by misstating his first name.
“Kim Reynolds has been promoting and campaigning with Rob DeSantis for months now. Over that time period, DeSantis has dropped like a rock," @alexbruesewitz said.
"A formal endorsement from Reynolds won’t save his dying, pathetic campaign," he added. https://t.co/vY3lzG8XXh
— Julia Johnson (@juliaajohnson_) November 7, 2023
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Ron DeSantis and Kim Reynolds” by Kim Reynolds.
