WASHINGTON (AP) – Ron DeSantis kicked off his presidential campaign in Iowa yesterday, the start of a busy week that will take him to 12 cities in three states as he tests his pitch as the most formidable Republican challenger to former president Donald Trump.
The Florida governor’s two-day trip to the leadoff caucus state – starting at a suburban Des Moines and ending at a Cedar Rapids racetrack – comes after a stumbling online announcement last week that formalised his long-anticipated entry into the growing Republican field. It will be followed by stops in early primary states New Hampshire and South Carolina. His visit will give voters an opportunity to meet the new candidate just as he has been stepping up his criticism of Trump.
“He’s got a big hill to climb – and I think everybody would agree with that – to be able to convince people that he can overcome Trump, that he can do a job as good as, if not better than, Trump,” said the Republican chair in Linn County Bernie Hayes, where DeSantis plans to wrap up his Iowa jaunt today.
DeSantis, assailed by Trump for months, pivoted from oblique swipes to direct questioning of the former president’s conservative credentials during a round of interviews with friendly media last week, notably his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and record on criminal justice.
DeSantis called a bipartisan bill Trump signed in 2018 that reduced mandatory minimum federal prison sentences and allows a pathway for non-violent offenders to reduce prison time “a jailbreak bill”.
As a member of Congress, DeSantis voted for an early version of the measure but had left Congress after he was elected governor and before the final, less strict bill passed.
DeSantis also said Trump wrongly “turned the country over to Fauci”, referring to Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who helped lead the country’s COVID-19 pandemic response.
DeSantis announced his campaign recently during an online conversation with Twitter Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk. The audio stream crashed repeatedly, making it difficult for most users to hear the announcement in real time, a stumble campaign officials and others quickly dismissed as a minor setback. DeSantis was undeterred in laying out his message, that conservative legislative victories this year in Florida, chiefly on cultural topics.
“American decline is not inevitable – it is a choice,” DeSantis said during the glitchy audio stream. “And we should choose a new direction – a path that will lead to American revitalisation.”
