5 things that went well for DeSantis in Iowa on Saturday

A tornado watch kept Donald Trump away from his planned rally in Iowa on Saturday — and Ron DeSantis took full advantage, barnstorming the state in the former president’s absence.

Though Trump is trouncing DeSantis in national polls, the gap isn’t quite as massive in Iowa. If the Florida governor can convince Iowans he’s the better bet to beat President Joe Biden — and parlay that momentum into strong performances in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada — the current national polls may not matter much.

Those are a lot of ifs. But as DeSantis girds to take on Trump directly and to formally announce his candidacy in the coming weeks, he’ll need to replicate the type of momentum he showed in the Hawkeye State on Saturday. Here are five things that went well for him on the trail in Iowa:

He did an adequate job at retail politics. The bar was quite low headed into the day. For months, DeSantis has been the subject of news stories about his struggles connecting with voters on the stump — even his perceived aloofness when talking with donors. So he countered that narrative when he spent half an hour shaking hands at a classic car museum in Sioux Center during a hamburger picnic, stopped in to a Pizza Ranch and then finished out the night standing on a table with his wife at Jethro’s BBQ.

Trump himself has sought to portray DeSantis as socially inept, and many of the former president’s surrogates and the conservative influencers who are supporting him spent the day posting unflattering photos of DeSantis in action, moments where the Florida governor appeared uncomfortable in the crowd.

DeSantis will never be mistaken for Bill Clinton working rope lines. But his own advisers have privately acknowledged that the flurry of coverage about his inadequacies on the stump have only made his initial attempts seem that much more successful.

He showed dexterity. DeSantis capitalized on Trump’s change in plans, rerouting his own travels to hold a last-minute meet-and-greet Saturday night at a barbecue restaurant not far from the location of Trump’s canceled rally. DeSantis’ team quickly kicked into gear as Trump announced that afternoon that his rally wouldn’t take place, the former president citing a tornado watch that was in effect until around the time he was set to take the stage.

Despite a long list of logistics that had to be solved — making an unplanned flight from a state party fundraiser in Cedar Rapids to 120 miles west in Des Moines for a 15-minute stop at Jethro’s BBQ — the decision was a quick one, according to a person familiar with the planning.

By Saturday evening, DeSantis and his team were buoyed by Trump’s rally cancellation, which kept the former president from receiving a night of headlines and live coverage as the Florida governor had national and Iowa media’s spotlight to himself. He and his wife, Casey, squeezed through a small opening in a crowd that had packed into the outdoor patio of the Des Moines restaurant, a mix of curious rib-eating customers, local activists and a gaggle of reporters.

The brief visit amounted to both a victory lap for DeSantis and a mockery of Trump’s decision to cancel a rally for severe weather that didn’t materialize in Des Moines.

DeSantis’ team took particular delight in a video posted to Twitter by Trump’s campaign, showing Trump staffers in Iowa knocking on the door of an elderly couple who are supporting his campaign effort in the Hawkeye State. The staffers presented the pair with several Trump ball caps, and passed the phone to them to speak to Trump, since he was unable to visit with them in person. A Republican strategist supporting DeSantis laughed that the scene resembled “Publishers Clearing House” check presentations.

He got face time with the state’s GOP brass. DeSantis showed up at an annual fundraiser picnic hosted by Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa) in the northwestern part of the state. The Des Moines Register called the event “a who’s who of Iowa’s top elected officials,” a gathering where DeSantis flipped burgers alongside Gov. Kim Reynolds.

Sen. Joni Ernst, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, and Iowa’s agriculture secretary, treasurer, attorney general and state legislators brushed shoulders with DeSantis, who a day earlier earned the endorsements of three dozen of the statehouse’s lawmakers. (Trump, for his part, on Saturday evening rolled out endorsements from 150 grassroots activists hailing from every county in Iowa.)

That night, DeSantis gave the keynote address at a Republican Party of Iowa fundraiser in Cedar Rapids. And he and his wife sat onstage afterward for a Q&A moderated by state GOP Chair Jeff Kaufmann.

The events where DeSantis spoke Saturday were much smaller than a Trump rally, even a poorly attended rally. But they did put him in the same rooms with — for extended periods of time — high-profile Iowa Republican leaders.

He subtly drew a contrast with Trump. DeSantis never mentioned Trump’s name during his speech in Sioux Center. He didn’t explicitly hit the man he’ll have to take down if DeSantis is serious about securing the Republican nomination. But he did try to lean into some key differences with Trump, albeit implicitly, that DeSantis is likely to emphasize even more as the months go by.

Days after Trump used a prime-time town hall to double down on his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, DeSantis in his speech cautioned Republicans against focusing during the next election on “the past or on other side issues.” DeSantis called for the GOP to “reject the culture of losing that has infected our party in recent years,” and criticized candidates who believe governing is about “entertaining” or “talking on social media.” (He also lambasted “virtue signaling” by those same politicians, something many critics of DeSantis would say he does quite frequently.)

After taking shot after shot from Trump in recent months with little pushback, DeSantis on Saturday signaled that he is preparing to go there — although his Trump offensive appears to still be in a slow rollout phase.

His message seemed to resonate, even among some Republican voters who like Trump. And that’s no surprise, given that DeSantis’ favorability ratings in the state have been similar to Trump’s — and that the people at the events Saturday voluntarily paid to attend to hear the Florida governor.

“After today’s speech, I’m leaning a little more towards him,” said Rick Lemmon of Sioux City, after DeSantis’ speech at the Feenstra picnic. Lemmon said he was still deciding between which of the two men he planned to support in the caucuses.

He liked what DeSantis had to say about “family” and “the border” and stopping what he described as “transgenderism in kids” — all issues that Trump and DeSantis seem to agree on. Lemmon, though, said he thought DeSantis could have a better electability argument to make.

“I think Trump’s got some baggage that might not make him more victorious in the end,” Lemmon said. “Where DeSantis doesn’t have that issue.”

Sally Goldenberg contributed to this report.