{"id":1943588,"date":"2023-06-03T16:46:04","date_gmt":"2023-06-03T20:46:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gop-2024-hopefuls-gathering-at-iowa-rally-but-trump-is-nowhere-to-be-seen\/"},"modified":"2023-06-03T16:48:48","modified_gmt":"2023-06-03T20:48:48","slug":"gop-2024-hopefuls-gathering-at-iowa-rally-but-trump-is-nowhere-to-be-seen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gop-2024-hopefuls-gathering-at-iowa-rally-but-trump-is-nowhere-to-be-seen\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP 2024 contenders meet in Iowa, sans Trump."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgop-2024-hopefuls-gathering-at-iowa-rally-but-trump-is-nowhere-to-be-seen%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1943588&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Eight Republican Presidential Hopefuls Gather in Iowa for Political Event<\/h2>\n<p>On Saturday, eight Republican presidential hopefuls attended a political event hosted by U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst in Iowa. Among those scheduled to appear at the rally were Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence. Notably absent was former President Donald Trump, the leading GOP presidential candidate, who has largely avoided events where he shares the stage with his 2024 rivals.<\/p>\n<p>DeSantis, seen as Trump\u2019s chief challenger, has been on a blitz of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/french-president-macron-slapped-in-the-face-by-member-of-the-public-video-shows\/\" title=\"French President Macron Slapped In The Face By Member Of The Public, Video Shows\">campaign stops<\/a> across <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dnc-may-end-iowas-first-in-the-nation-caucuses-in-2024-election\/\" title=\"DNC May End Iowa\u2019s First-in-the-Nation Caucuses in 2024 Election\">early-voting states<\/a>, including Iowa, in recent days as he marked his first week as an official candidate. At the fairgrounds, he signed autographs and even signed a Bible for one supporter who thanked him for &#8220;standing up to Disney.&#8221; DeSantis&#8217; wife, Casey DeSantis, also made an appearance, wearing a leather jacket with an alligator and an outline of Florida stitched onto the back, with the message, \u201cWhere woke goes to die,\u201d a slogan that the governor has adopted.<\/p>\n<h3>Pence Launches Long-Expected Campaign in Iowa<\/h3>\n<p>Former Vice President Mike Pence, who has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/top-soros-operative-made-numerous-visits-to-biden-white-house\/\" title=\"Top Soros Operative Made Numerous Visits to Biden White House\">made frequent trips<\/a> to Iowa over the past year, is not yet in the race, but will launch his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gop-2024-hopefuls-gathering-at-iowa-rally-but-trump-is-nowhere-to-be-seen\/\" title=\"GOP 2024 contenders meet in Iowa, sans Trump.\">long-expected campaign<\/a> at an event in Des Moines on Wednesday, according to two people familiar with his plans who spoke on condition of anonymity. Pence was the only White House hopeful participating in a morning motorcycle ride for charity that is a staple of Ernst\u2019s annual \u201cRoast and Ride\u201d event. He and Ernst stood in the back of a pickup truck and briefly addressed the riders before setting off.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the reporters just asked me if we\u2019re showing up more in Iowa what our lane would be. I said I\u2019m more worried about the lane we\u2019re going to be staying in today,\u201d Pence said.<\/p>\n<p>Pence, wearing a white motorcycle helmet and a big grin, then rode off on a cobalt blue Harley-Davidson. The group planned to ride to the fairgrounds for the rest of the event, featuring barbecue and speeches. He participated in the ride once before, in 2017.<\/p>\n<h3>Other Presidential Hopefuls Expected to Appear<\/h3>\n<p>Other presidential hopefuls expected to appear at the rally later in the day include former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Michigan businessman Perry Johnson, author Vivek Ramaswamy, and conservative talk radio host Larry Elder.<\/p>\n<p>Marie Andres of Des Moines signed a form, distributed by a super political action committee supporting DeSantis, to pledge to caucus for him early next year. \u201cTrump did a great job, but in my opinion, too much drama,\u201d the 74-year-old said. She said she committed to the governor because she thinks DeSantis is \u201cthe best we\u2019re gonna get.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite the absence of Trump, the event was a significant gathering of Republican presidential hopefuls, with each candidate vying for the support of Iowa voters ahead of the 2024 election.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Sources:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/ap-desantis-pence-gop-2024-hopefuls-not-trump-set-appear-iowa-rally\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Western Journal<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eight GOP candidates, including Ron DeSantis and Mike Pence, attended a political event hosted by Sen. Joni Ernst in Iowa. The rally was held at the state fairgrounds near Des Moines, with Donald Trump, the top Republican contender, absent from the event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":1943589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[548],"tags":[4506,8374,6203,5626,3767,28233,3634],"class_list":["post-1943588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conservative-news-daily","tag-4506","tag-contenders","tag-gop","tag-iowa","tag-meet","tag-sans","tag-trump"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1943588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1943588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1943588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1943589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1943588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1943588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1943588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}