{"id":2150160,"date":"2024-01-16T07:50:01","date_gmt":"2024-01-16T12:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ron-desantis-failed-spectacularly-in-iowa-but-it-didnt-have-to-be-this-way\/"},"modified":"2024-01-16T07:57:58","modified_gmt":"2024-01-16T12:57:58","slug":"ron-desantis-failed-spectacularly-in-iowa-but-it-didnt-have-to-be-this-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ron-desantis-failed-spectacularly-in-iowa-but-it-didnt-have-to-be-this-way\/","title":{"rendered":"DeSantis&#8217; Iowa Failure: An Avoidable Disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/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%2Fron-desantis-failed-spectacularly-in-iowa-but-it-didnt-have-to-be-this-way%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=2150160&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--><div class=\"article-content\">\n<h2>The Iowa Caucuses: \u200dTrump&#8217;s Victory and DeSantis&#8217; Defeat<\/h2>\n<p>The results of\u200b the Iowa caucuses \u2064surprised no\u2062 one: Donald Trump ran away with it, as his 28-point lead in the\u2063 polls going into Monday suggested he would. \u2063The polls were accurate this time, and most corporate media outlets called Iowa for Trump not long after 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The\u200c former president ended up with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2024\/01\/15\/us\/elections\/results-iowa-caucus.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">51 precent of the total caucus vote<\/a>, followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a distant second\u2063 with 21 percent, \u200band Nikki Haley coming in third at 19 percent.<\/p>\n<p>But the big news \u2062of the night isn\u2019t\u2063 Trump\u2019s massive win, it\u2019s DeSantis\u2019 spectacular defeat. His campaign is \u200dnow a cautionary tale\u200d about how\u200d <em>not<\/em> \u2062 to go \u2063after Trump.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>DeSantis\u2064 had every advantage before he launched his presidential bid. He was a popular governor of a large state who\u2064 won reelection in a landslide in 2022, notched major, \u200dsubstantive policy\u2064 victories, and was adept at punching back at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-the-new-right-can-subvert-the-medias-villainous-ensemble-narrative\/\" title=\"How the New Right Can Subvert the Media's \u201cVillainous Ensemble\u201d Narrative\">hostile corporate media<\/a>. Yet somehow he managed to squander all this and flame out in Iowa. Recall that less than a year ago, in April 2023, before he launched his campaign for president, DeSantis\u2063 was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearpolling.com\/polls\/president\/republican-primary\/2024\/iowa-caucus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">polling near \u206330 percent in the Hawkeye State<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Given these dismal results, it\u2019s important to recall just how much \u2063time and money DeSantis spent in Iowa only to come in a\u2062 distant second, more or less sounding the death knell of his campaign. The DeSantis camp and\u200c a trio of pro-DeSantis super PACs <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2024\/01\/15\/politics\/advertising-spending-iowa-republicans\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">spent a combined $35 million in Iowa<\/a>, almost\u200c as much as Haley\u2019s campaign and allied groups spent in the state, and\u200d nearly twice\u2063 what \u2063Trump and his groups did.<\/p>\n<p>In\u200c addition, DeSantis himself went all-in for Iowa, crisscrossing the state and visiting all 99 counties, making countless appearances in every forum imaginable. One super PAC backing his campaign \u201csaid it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2024\/01\/15\/ron-desantis-iowa-expectations-00135437\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">recruited\u2062 more than 1,600 precinct captains in Iowa<\/a>\u201d over the past nine months, according to Politico.<\/p>\n<h3>DeSantis&#8217; Fatal Mistake<\/h3>\n<p>Why \u200ddid DeSantis do all this? Because his strategy was to win\u2064 Iowa to show GOP voters nationwide that he could take on Trump and win. As events have shown, that \u200bwas a big mistake. But it fits within a recognizable pattern in the DeSantis\u200c campaign: Every decision was \u2064about\u200d comparing himself to Trump in the most explicit and unhelpful \u200bways. Ever since he\u2064 announced his candidacy, DeSantis has been obsessed with taking \u200don Trump,\u200d never missing an opportunity to malign the former president or take a cheap shot,\u2064 even when it was unnecessary or frankly irrelevant\u2062 to whatever he was talking about.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>It was a curious approach to take in a race where all the fundamentals suggested that aggressively going after\u200b Trump would alienate and anger GOP primary voters, especially \u2062as Democrats ramped up their unconstitutional schemes to imprison\u2064 Trump or, failing that, keep him off the ballot in\u2064 as many states as possible.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Like it or not, many Republicans have a unique bond with Trump, not just because \u200cthey had to endure a lot of grief for supporting him in the past but \u200dalso because they see how Democrats and the media have weaponized entire institutions against him in the most outrageous and dangerous ways. Even if these GOP voters are open to supporting other candidates this time around, the last thing they want is to be told that Trump is awful, \u2064which comes \u200doff as an indictment of <em>them<\/em> and <em>their judgment<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s odd that DeSantis was never able to \u200dfigure that out, or\u200b that no one in his orbit was able to persuade him to take\u200d a different approach. Instead, as my colleague\u2062 Emily Jashinsky <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/01\/15\/why-trump-is-winning-by-double-digits-heading-into-iowa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">put it Monday<\/a>, \u200bDeSantis \u201callowed Beltway vest aficionados and their \u200dfriends in the donor class to steer his career off course\u201d with endless attacks on Trump.<\/p>\n<p>But of course, DeSantis didn\u2019t need to attack Trump\u2062 to make\u2062 his case for the GOP nomination. He\u200d could have praised Trump\u2019s achievements\u2062 and defended him from the unfair attacks leveled at him by Democrats, as Vivek Ramaswamy has done, and simply ignored Trump\u2019s insults. At the same time, he could have \u2063instead focused on explaining and touting his own considerable accomplishments in Florida.<\/p>\n<h3>Missed Opportunities and Lack of Strategy<\/h3>\n<p>Any governor \u200drunning\u200b for president faces \u200cthe challenge\u200b of conveying his or \u2062her popularity and accomplishments to a national audience. But DeSantis had a lot to work with in this department, given his headline-grabbing policy wins in Florida in recent years and his landslide reelection in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Yet he seemed to \u2064have no communications strategy in\u2062 place to make his case on the\u200c national stage. Upon\u200d launching his campaign, DeSantis kept the national\u200c corporate press at arm\u2019s length and simply took for granted that every Republican in the country knew him as \u201cAmerica\u2019s governor\u201d whose \u200brecord would speak for \u2062itself, \u2064when that\u200b manifestly \u200dwasn\u2019t the case. It wasn\u2019t until much later in the campaign (too late, it\u2064 turns out) that he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/minneapolis-ex-cop-chauvin-convicted-of-murder-in-floyd-case\/\" title=\"Minneapolis Ex-Cop Chauvin Convicted of Murder in Floyd Case\">began making appearances<\/a> on corporate shows like MSNBC\u2019s \u201cMorning Joe\u201d and doing interviews with CNN\u2019s Jake Tapper.<\/p>\n<p>Trump, who is more or less running as an incumbent in the primary, is the one candidate who can bypass the corporate press and speak directly to his massive base. That\u2019s a huge advantage Trump \u2063enjoys over his GOP competitors. So DeSantis \u2063needed a plan to get his message out to the rest of the country. He didn\u2019t have one.<\/p>\n<p>It didn\u2019t have to be this way. Instead of listening\u200b to \u201cBeltway vest aficionados\u201d and hiring too-online campaign staff, DeSantis could \u2064have ignored Trump\u2019s attacks, touted his own impressive accomplishments, and embraced favorable (and unfavorable) press coverage. DeSantis is actually \u2062very good at handling the press and could have\u2062 used them to his advantage (as Trump did in\u200c 2016). Doing this \u200dwould have drawn <em>implicit<\/em> comparisons to Trump without DeSantis himself ever having to utter Trump\u2019s name \u2014 except to defend the former president from the real enemy, which is the Democrats and\u200c their republic-killing machinations to destroy electoral politics.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, this is where DeSantis really went astray. He mistook Trump for his\u200c main opponent\u200c when his real opponent \u2014 and the real villain in all this \u2014 is the Democrat machine that\u2019s trying not only\u2064 to take out \u2063Trump before November but also to destroy democracy and self-government in this\u200b country. The primary so far has been a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/republicans-considering-investigations-into-hunter-fauci-and-others-after-midterms\/\" title=\"Republicans Considering Investigations Into Hunter, Fauci and Others After Midterms\">target-rich environment<\/a>, it\u2019s just that Trump shouldn\u2019t have \u200bbeen one of the targets, much less the main one.<\/p>\n<p>DeSantis might not be \u2062a great retail\u2064 politician, but\u2064 he \u2062is obviously a smart guy. \u200cThe redirection he could have pulled on questions about Trump would have required discipline and focus, and these are qualities DeSantis possesses \u2014 he has demonstrated them as governor, if not as a candidate. Some CNN hack\u2063 might \u2064have asked about Trump\u2019s latest\u2064 insult, and DeSantis could have brushed it off and talked instead about the latest insane Trump indictment and \u200bhow we can forget about the primary if this is \u200dhow the left is\u2062 going to engage in politics.<\/p>\n<p>But he never did that, or at \u200cleast didn\u2019t do it without also taking swipes at Trump, which did nothing \u200cto hurt Trump but did \u200bmuch to alienate GOP primary voters, most of whom\u200b voted\u200d twice for Trump and,\u2064 even if persuadable,\u2063 have some affection for the former president.<\/p>\n<p>Having \u2063finished\u200d a distant second in the one state where he bet the farm, it\u2019s fair to say DeSantis is probably done. That\u2019s a \u2063shame because he could have changed the primary race if he had\u2064 better understood \u200bthe underlying dynamics \u2014\u200c that\u200c Trump wasn\u2019t his main opponent, that\u200d he needed to use the national corporate press to make his case, and that the one mistake he could not afford to make was to \u2064insult and alienate Trump voters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"> <\/p>\n<h2> In what ways did DeSantis miss the mark\u2064 in terms of building a strong campaign organization and grassroots support?<\/h2>\n<p><span>  Ut directly attacking him, and it would have allowed DeSantis to differentiate \u200chimself from other candidates by highlighting \u200dhis own unique strengths and accomplishments.<\/p>\n<p>Another missed opportunity for DeSantis \u2064was his failure to \u2063build a strong campaign \u200dorganization \u200dand grassroots support. While\u200d he\u200d did have a\u2064 super PAC backing his campaign, it seems that they focused more on spending money on advertisements rather than grassroots\u2062 organizing. In contrast, Trump has always had a strong grassroots movement behind him, which has been crucial to \u200bhis success. DeSantis could have taken a page from Trump&#8217;s \u200dplaybook\u200b and built a strong network of volunteers and supporters in key primary states, like Iowa.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, DeSantis&#8217; focus on Iowa as a make-or-break \u200cstate was a\u200b flawed strategy. While winning Iowa can certainly give a candidate momentum, it is not a guarantee of ultimate victory. The Republican\u2064 primary field is \u2062diverse and each state has its own unique dynamics.\u2063 Instead of placing all his eggs in the Iowa basket, DeSantis should have had a \u200dmore geographically diverse strategy, focusing on key battleground states and building a broad coalition \u2063of support.<\/p>\n<p>In \u2064hindsight,\u2064 it\u200c is clear that DeSantis&#8217; strategy of\u200d going after Trump and trying to position himself as the anti-Trump candidate\u200c was\u200b a grave mistake. It alienated a significant portion of the Republican base that\u200d remains loyal to Trump, and it failed to resonate with\u200d voters who \u2063are looking for strong conservative leadership\u2063 in the post-Trump era. DeSantis had the potential to\u2063 be a formidable\u200d contender for the GOP nomination, but his campaign missteps and lack of a clear strategic vision \u2062ultimately led to his defeat in Iowa.<\/p>\n<p>As\u2063 for Trump, \u2064his victory in Iowa is a testament to his enduring popularity and his \u2063ability \u2062to energize the Republican \u2063base. \u2064Despite being out of office for several years, \u2062Trump remains the dominant force in the Republican Party. His strong showing in \u200dIowa sends a\u2062 clear message to the rest of the field:\u2063 if you want to compete, you need\u200b to understand and appeal to the Trump base.<\/p>\n<p>The Iowa caucuses have \u200bset the \u2062tone for the \u2063rest of the Republican primary season. Trump has established himself as the frontrunner, while DeSantis&#8217; defeat serves as a cautionary tale for other candidates who\u200b may be considering a similar strategy. As the \u2064campaign trail heats up and candidates continue to vie for the nomination, it will\u2064 be interesting to see how they navigate the Trump factor and whether any of \u200cthem can challenge Trump&#8217;s dominance in the party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Iowa caucuses yielded no surprises. Donald Trump&#8217;s predicted victory was confirmed as he maintained a 28-point lead in the polls. The media quickly declared Trump the winner around 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time, aligning with the accurate poll predictions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":518,"featured_media":2150161,"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":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2150160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"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\/2150160","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\/518"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2150160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2150161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2150160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2150160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2150160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}