Donald Trump’s campaign believes Ron DeSantis is flatlining. Now, they want to bury him.
The former president and his team are beefing up their efforts in Iowa, hoping to deliver the type of knock-out punch that would effectively end the Florida governor’s bid and send a message to the other campaigns to get out of the way.
Building on his seven visits to Iowa so far this year, Trump is embarking on a “Team Trump Caucus Commitment” organizing event in Iowa with campaign volunteers at the Jackson County Fairgrounds in Maquoketa, and remarks at the Grand River Conference Center in Dubuque this Wednesday. Trump plans to make three more stops in Iowa during the first half of October, and again in the final days of the month, his team said. The Trump campaign is also bringing on Alex Meyer, who was recently part of the RNC’s political data team, as a senior adviser to focus on both Iowa and Missouri.
It’s a remarkable investment of time from a candidate who has, through the summer, left a light footprint on the trail. And it’s being supplemented with an air attack by Trump world as a pro-DeSantis PAC advertises aggressively in the state. MAGA Inc., the super PAC supporting Trump, is spending over $700,000 on advertising this week in Iowa, according to the ad tracking firm AdImpact. Trump’s Iowa team is focused on educating and training Trump supporters on the caucus process, and the Trump campaign has boasted of 27,500 signed caucus pledge cards and 1,500 local volunteers in the state.
“No candidate has ever won Iowa [GOP caucus] by more than 12 points and even the most conservative polls have us at double that margin,” said Alex Latcham, the Trump campaign’s early states director. “But I try to continuously remind our team and our staff and everybody that we do not take it for granted.”
Trump’s flurry of activity in the state comes as his rivals have been crisscrossing Iowa in hopes that they can somehow, finally, change the trajectory of the race, which seems less and less competitive each day. Trump is, at this juncture, the runaway frontrunner nationally, and in Iowa, he is beating DeSantis in state polls by about 30 points. But veterans of the state’s caucuses say such a lead may be overblown and that Trump is wise to try and put his foot on the pedal right now.
“If you look historically when the race starts coming together, and trajectory and momentum and those kinds of things really start to matter, it is after Labor Day, after school has started. That’s when you saw previous insurgent campaigns really starting to get traction like Huckabee, Santorum, etc.,” said veteran Iowa Republican operative Nicole Schlinger.
While Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been careful not to antagonize Trump’s supporters, he and his team have begun to question the former president’s Iowa operation.
