On the Air & On the Ground in Iowa (Part 2)
It's Caucus Day in Iowa
NOTE: This post was “pre-published” on Sunday evening, the day before the Iowa Caucus. This post will be updated through the morning with additional insight. Enjoy this premium, subscriber-style content at no cost to you. In a few months, insight like this will go behind a paywall. This platform currently offers a free subscription.
I got to Ames Saturday morning, after a two-day trek from the St. Louis Lambert International Airport that took me through Memphis, Missouri, as well as Bloomfield and Oskaloosa, Iowa. You can read about the first part of this Iowa Caucus excursion here.
I can’t express the excitement I feel about the Caucus. What was originally a #CaucusTourism trip to Iowa to witness the “First in the Nation” nominating contest first-hand turned into a campaign trip when the DeSantis campaign called on Saturday to place me at a Caucus site in Story County tonight.
Luckily for me and Caucus-goers, it’s not supposed to snow Monday. The roads are clear, but it will be bitterly cold all day. It’s not going to break 0° — take a look at the forecast:
Before I left Oskaloosa for Ames Saturday morning, I joined my friend and fellow Substacker
on the first podcast for . You can listen to it here.I spent the day Saturday and Sunday calling Iowa Caucus-goers at my assigned location to introduce myself as the DeSantis surrogate and to confirm their participation in the Caucus.
A.J. Spiker, the former chairman of the Iowa Republican Party and 2012 co-chair of the 2012 Ron Paul for President campaign, took me to Iowa State University in Ames to snap a picture for this tweet:
A.J. and I are bouncing messaging points off Iowa talk show host Steve Deace and Congressmen Chip Roy and Thomas Massie. One of the points is — while Trump may be leading in Iowa and elsewhere — there is still an opportunity to take the fight all the way to the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, a point that seems to have permeated the Florida Governor’s messaging.
Deace drafted messaging points for Caucus surrogates, which you can read here.
Massie and Roy are heavy-hitters on the trail for DeSantis, but Deace speaks Iowa — this video hits all the best messaging points for surrogates and supporters:
While the Des Moines Register poll showed Nikki Haley passing Ron DeSantis in Iowa, the cross-tabs are not favorable to Haley. Most of Haley’s support comes from independents and Democrats, most of whom won’t brave the weather or register as Republicans to participate in the Caucus.
Another poll released late yesterday evening shows a different outcome:
Trump’s enthusiasm is high, but momentum belongs to DeSantis, who made his closing argument in the Des Moines suburb of Ankeny on Sunday night:
The image above is from this tweet from Shon Phillips, and the below photo is from Scott Wagner.
A slew of Florida Republicans are stumping and knocking doors for DeSantis, and Ron DeSantis’ own mother is in Iowa knocking doors. A casual perusal of Twitter shows a wave of DeSantis supporters descending on Iowa to connect with Caucus-goers.
We’ll see.
NOTE: This post was “pre-published” on Sunday evening, the day before the Iowa Caucus. This post will be updated through the morning with additional insight. Be sure to check back through the morning for a few more thoughts. I suspect I’ll have an update Monday night or early Tuesday morning.