Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is missing an opportunity to build support in South Carolina with his strategic pivot toward Iowa, Palmetto State political observers told The Post.
DeSantis’ campaign has focused much of its energy on reforming former President Donald Trump in the Hawkeye State.
The 45-year-old governor is determined to visit all 99 Iowa counties before the Jan. 15 caucuses, shaking hands and talking to voters in a state that values retail politics.
DeSantis has already reached 74 of those counties, according to campaign spokesman Andrew Romeo, and moved a sizable number of his staff from Florida to Iowa last week.
The focus on Iowa came at the expense of visits to South Carolina — the first primary in the South and the last race before Super Tuesday on the 2024 calendar.
DeSantis is ahead of most other Republican candidates, as he was the first to run in the South Carolina primary. Trump and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy are the only other candidates currently on the list.
While a representative for DeSantis noted that the governor visited the state “almost a dozen times” during his campaign, the events in Greenville and Spartanburg last week marked his first trip to the Southeastern political powerhouse in nearly three months.
“You can’t ignore South Carolina. When our record is [in] In 10 of the last 11 elections, when choosing presidential candidates, you can’t put all your eggs in the Iowa and New Hampshire basket,” said Republican strategist Dave Wilson.
DeSantis greets supporters before speaking during a campaign stop on his Never Back Down bus tour of South Carolina at the America Legion Post 28 in Spartanburg, South Carolina.REUTERS
“I think Ron DeSantis was in South Carolina [last] week, you have at least shown some attention to our state. But it is a retail political state and we hope to see presidential candidates here,” Wilson continued.
While Wilson admitted that DeSantis’ Iowa strategy could still pay off with a victory in the Trump comeback caucus, “you can’t do that at the expense of spending some time, energy and effort in South Carolina.”
DeSantis intends to visit South Carolina three more times this month and the campaign “looks forward to building on this grassroots momentum in the coming weeks and months,” spokeswoman Carly Atchinson told The Post, noting that DeSantis was the first to apply for state approval. primary.
“While Hurricane Idalia canceled the governor’s previous trip to the Palmetto State in August, First Lady Casey DeSantis stepped in and was warmly welcomed at the Faith & Freedom BBQ fundraiser. Our campaign has been building strong support and unparalleled infrastructure in South Carolina, and has more than 50 endorsements from state legislators, sheriffs, mayors, county council members and city council members from every region of the state, as well as as well as almost 40 pastors and religious leaders who have joined our Faith and Family Coalition in the state,” Atchinson added.
DeSantis is determined to visit all 99 Iowa counties before the January 15 caucuses.REUTERS
State Sen. Josh Kimbrell, who introduced DeSantis on Wednesday, argued that the governor “has done a good job of arriving early,” but added that he should maintain “regular visits” in the coming months before the Feb. 24 primary.
“In my conversations with him and his team, he made it very clear that he intends to live here between the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries,” Kimbrell said. “As long as he keeps coming here pretty regularly between now and New Hampshire and then moves here between the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries, I still think he could win. Especially if he does well in Iowa.”
DeSantis has a steep path to overtaking Trump, who received 50.5% support among South Carolina’s registered Republican voters in a recent Winthrop University poll. Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and Senator Tim Scott, who share South Carolina as their home state, are polling at 16.6% and 5.8% respectively, while DeSantis is at 12. 1%.
“You can’t ignore South Carolina,” said Republican strategist Dave Wilson.REUTERS
Haley has held 10 events in the state, “and several of them had over 1,000 attendees, standing room only and overflow rooms,” his spokesman Ken Farnaso told The Post.
Scott has visited the state 14 times for campaign events, according to his campaign.
Drew McKissick, chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party and co-chairman of the Republican National Committee, told the Post that he would “advise the entire campaign to spend a lot of time, as much as they can, in South Carolina,” arguing that it is “risky.” “Not being well positioned so close to Super Tuesday.
“South Carolina offers something that is unique,” he said. “With our primary base, we have a microcosm of Republican primary voters across the country: cultural conservatives, fiscal conservatives, populists, national security voters.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn