Florida politics in Iowa

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: Republicans at the starting line.

Iowa may be thirty-second in terms of state population, but every four years you might think it was number one. Iowa receives outsized attention as the starting point for presidential hopefuls. And this year is no different.

Former Vice President Mike Pence is expected to declare his candidacy today in Des Moines.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: But last week the attention was all on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Pundits talked about his personal appeal and whether his Florida politics will play in Iowa?

Last week, several students from our 20-23 class of the World Journalism Institute attended one of DeSantis’s events in Sioux City. They listened to the speeches and then got impressions from the Republicans in the room.

EICHER: WJI grad Conrad Otto helped write this story. His classmate Alex Carmenaty brings it to us now.

ALEX CARMENATY, REPORTER: Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis kicked off his campaign last week in Iowa. Starting in the state capital of Des Moines, Florida’s Governor traveled to several towns, including Sioux City, where he made a pitch to voters at the Port Neal Welding Co.

RON DeSANTIS: This country is going in the wrong direction. We all know it, we feel it. We have an completely open southern border with drugs pouring in that are killing 10s of 1000s of Americans. We're also mindful of the 13 service members that we lost in Afghanistan, due to Joe Biden's dereliction of duty as commander in chief.

I had the chance to talk with voters and asked them for their impressions of the Florida Governor. Don Stevens liked DeSantis' experience.

DON STEVENS: He handled Florida great. Florida has a diverse population of so many different kinds of people. And they seem to love him down there. He's been able to move his state positively where it had to go. And so that's some of the reasons I support him.

DeSantis provides a favorable contrast to the rough edges of former President Donald Trump.

STEVENS: I think DeSantis is more calming. I think he's, he's smooth and he's loyal to his people. And I think those are the things that people enjoy. I mean, when you work for Donald Trump and we are Trump people, there's no question where Trump person because he did a lot for this country. But I think I wouldn't want to work for him. He's pretty explosive.

DeSantis’ speech here was pretty explosive. Energetic, about 40 minutes. On the issues, DeSantis focused on illegal immigration and what he calls “woke” ideology. He also aimed at reforming the military.

DeSANTIS: We're a sovereign country, our border matters. You can't have millions of people illegally pouring in burdening communities having criminal aliens come in and having drugs pour in. You also can't have American cities that are overrun with crime.. We also need to restore integrity to our institutions. And yet we look at our military now and we see them getting caught up in political ideology, gender pronouns, talking about global warming. We need to reorient things like the military back to its core mission.

Illegal immigration struck a chord with voter Brian Fannon. He connected it to the economy.

BRIAN FANNON: They kind of go hand in hand. You got all these people coming over here and you know, then there's not as many jobs for the people that are here.

These voters also resonated with DeSantis on culture war issues. Larry Christensen likes the way DeSantis fights what he called woke ideology:

LARRY CHRISTENSEN: It's a runaway ideology is what it is. There's no real reason for it. Other than that, that's the way they want the country to go. And I think you see it with whether it be Disney or Bud Light or now I think Target. It's not what the country wants, and hopefully they get that figured out.

He believes it has taken hold in the US military. Veterans in Iowa like Christensen support DeSantis for his former military background, along with his desire to combat the current direction the military has gone.

CHRISTENSEN: A lot of it's the you know the DEI stuff and the CRT stuff that he put in there all the woke agenda which I agree with him when he set it up there was that they're struggling to recruit. You can't hardly get people to get in the military anymore, so unless they fix that problem I don't think it's gonna get much better.

Along with Iowa voters, local and state elected officials showed their support for DeSantis. Iowa State Senator Dave Rowley:

DAVE ROWLEY: I think he brings a statesmanship approach Ron DeSantis bring statesmanship he brings his experience His knowledge military background his judiciary background, being a prosecutor himself and with JAG. He brings those strengths to the table.

Another strength is DeSantis’s youth. He’ll turn 45. Stevens noted how the last two presidents are over the age of 75.

STEVENS: Take a look at Joe Biden running for office and Donald Trump running for office is just the best we have? Bringing new life into the mix is going to offer a lot of options this country hasn't seen or has seen in the presidency.

DeSantis is emphasizing freedom as a central theme of his campaign, comparing his handling of COVID to that of the federal government, in particular to whom he considers the COVID czar, Dr. Anthony Fauci.

DeSANTIS: We held the line when freedom itself hung in the balance. We protected people's jobs and small businesses in short, Florida. We chose freedom over Fauci-ism and we are better off for having done that.

From here, it’s off to the rest of the nation, and its voters.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Alex Carmenaty, in Sioux City, Iowa.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.