Florida Gov. DeSantis' 'closing message' in Iowa includes jabs at Trump, Haley

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis launched his presidential campaign by declaring that he would "lead our great American comeback."

Now he needs a comeback of his own to keep his campaign alive. And he's trying to engineer it by tearing down his two main GOP rivals.

Much of DeSantis' campaign has focused on his record in Florida, but he is closing out his Iowa efforts this week with critiques of former President Donald Trump and United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, also a former South Carolina governor.

The Jan. 15 Iowa Caucuses are critical for DeSantis. He has invested heavily - at least $22 million on TV ads alone between his campaign and allied super PACs - in Iowa, the first state to vote. A poor showing in the state may well sink his presidential campaign.

A big issue, according to one pollster, is the fact that DeSantis hasn't connected "emotionally" to voters the way Trump does.

Still, DeSantis is trying to catch Trump, who is ahead by more than 30 percentage points in the average of Iowa polls, and hold off Haley, who has been surging.

The DeSantis campaign has been marred by dysfunction and an inability to make a compelling case for why Republican voters should choose him over Trump. His stumbles have provided an opening for Haley to convince voters she is the stronger Trump alternative.

As he works to close out an Iowa campaign that has been robust on the ground but stagnant in the polls, DeSantis has settled on a closing message that knocks Haley as a candidate beholden to wealthy donors and Trump as a self-centered leader more focused on his own priorities than the nation's.

"Donald Trump is running for his issues, Nikki Haley is running for her donor's issues, I'm running for your issues," DeSantis says in a new television ad, comments that his campaign is touting as his "closing message in the Hawkeye State." He used the line in his opening remarks Wednesday while debating Haley in Iowa.

DeSantis has been careful about how he criticizes Trump, not wanting to antagonize his voters. That has made it difficult for him to make a forceful case for why GOP voters should ditch the former president.

DeSantis still is going harder at Haley than Trump in the final days of the campaign. His final TV ad of the race leads off with Haley's recent comments that New Hampshire – the second state to vote in the presidential nominating contest – "corrects" what Iowa starts, which the ad describes as Haley disparaging the Jan. 15 caucuses and insulting Iowans.

And Wednesday's debate saw DeSantis attack Haley from start to finish in his most aggressive performance yet.

The focus on Haley is an effort to blunt her momentum and avoid an embarrassing third place finish in Iowa.

DeSantis also is taking more direct aim at Trump, though, in the hopes that the former president performs below expectations in Iowa and looks vulnerable as he leaves the state, rather than as the inevitable nominee.

Trump's 'head scratching' comments

During a press conference Monday with Iowa media, DeSantis brought up Trump unprompted within the first minute, describing statements he made at recent Iowa rallies as "head scratching."

DeSantis pointed to Trump saying "we have to get over" a recent school shooting in Iowa, his false claim that magnets don't work underwater, and remarks about how the Civil War could have been "negotiated."

"He couldn't even negotiate funding for a border wall when he had a Republican Congress," DeSantis said of Trump. "I see that and I look and I think that the more Iowans see this Trump versus the Trump that they knew, ... you're going to see more and more people who are going to be open to go in a different direction."

DeSantis may have waited too late to take on Trump more forcefully, though. He ignored for months Trump's criticisms, which began before DeSantis even entered the race.

Trump continues to bash DeSantis, most recently saying he is "lying" about his COVID-19 record, but has focused more on Haley in recent days, a sign that he views her as more of a threat.

“He’s waited until the end of the campaign to tell voters why he’s a better choice than Trump," said Alex Conant, a GOP consultant who worked on U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio's 2016 presidential campaign. "He’s been so reluctant to tell voters why they should vote for him instead of Trump.”

Conant said the fact that DeSantis is devoting much of his closing argument to tearing down his rivals shows his campaign hasn't fared well.

“It’s a pretty good summary of the campaign," Conant said of DeSantis' final TV ad. "It’s very different than what his opening message was and it shows that no only has he failed to maintain his strong poll numbers, he’s let another competitor get into the top of the field."

"When I saw the ad it just reminded me nine months ago he was in a position of strength, clearly he’s fighting from the rear now," Conant added. "He’s finishing the campaign by trying to fight a multi-front campaign, not selling his own merits."

DeSantis' message when he launched his campaign boiled down to "Make America Florida."

He rose to prominence with aggressive conservative policymaking in Florida: At the beginning of 2023 he was competitive with Trump in national polls and was viewed as his strongest potential opponent.

He leaned on that record heavily when he launched his campaign, touting new abortion restrictions he pushed, limits on discussing sexual orientation or gender identity in schools and his COVID record.

That message hasn't won over enough voters, though, and while DeSantis continues to talk about his Florida record - he opened Wednesday's debate declaring "we've delivered huge victories in the state of Florida" - his closing argument is heavy on ripping his rivals.

“I think he made the same mistake a lot of governors do when they run for president," Conant said. "In presidential politics, voters don’t care about your record, they care about what you’re going to do as president and DeSantis was slow to lay out his agenda and even slower to say why he’d be a better president than Donald Trump."

High favorability, low support

A Suffolk University poll released Wednesday has DeSantis trailing Haley by nine percentage points. The survey found that 58% of likely caucus-goers view DeSantis favorably, but most of them are supporting Trump.

Haley has a lower favorability rating, but those who like her are more likely to vote for her.

Suffolk University Political Research Center Director David Paleologos said Haley is winning over more moderate voters who don't like Trump, while DeSantis – who has run a hard right campaign – is struggling to compete with Trump among more conservative voters.

“DeSantis really needs Trump to falter and, according to the numbers, Trump really isn’t faltering," Paleologos said.

DeSantis is unlikely to catch Trump at this point. A strong second place finish could still provide some momentum, though, and he has attacked Haley at every opportunity.

About 40% of Haley supporters say DeSantis is their second choice in the Suffolk poll, and Paleologos said he may be able to peel some of them away.

"We don't need another mealy-mouthed politician who just tells you what she thinks you want to hear just to try to get your vote then to get into office and to do her donors' bidding," DeSantis said of Haley at Wednesday's debate.

DeSantis also continued to highlight Haley's comments about former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton inspiring her to run for office, saying: "I remember Hillary denigrating people on the Republican side as deplorables. We don't need a candidate who's going to look down on middle America."

Haley said DeSantis is going negative because his campaign is floundering.

"If he would spend as much time trying to prove why he thinks he would be a good president he would be doing a lot better in the polls," Haley said. "The reason that he spent and blown through $150 million dollars and gone down in the polls is because he spent more time trying to lie about me then he is about telling the truth about himself."

Even if DeSantis won every Haley voter, he would still lose to Trump in Iowa by 21 percentage points in the Suffolk poll. He hasn't convinced enough voters who view Trump favorably that he's a better choice.

That could be a messaging problem, but it also may be something else: "There’s a deeper emotional connection to Trump, there’s not an emotional connection to DeSantis, and maybe what this all comes down to is emotion," Paleologos said.

The 99 county strategy

With the final debate over, the candidates are blanketing Iowa in the last gasp of campaigning before Monday's caucuses.

Part of DeSantis' closing message is that he has put in the work to earn Iowans' votes, appearing at small venues around the state to answer questions from voters.

DeSantis has campaign relentlessly in Iowa, visiting all 99 counties, investing the bulk of his considerable resources in the state and securing endorsements from Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and influential evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats.

He has recruited 1,600 precinct captains for the caucus locations and is counting on a strong ground game, led by a super PAC supporting his campaign, to help him exceed expectations.

"He's certainly hit the ground in Iowa, visited every county. We're going to see now. His team is working extremely hard. And he's giving it all he's got. And I think he's going to be rewarded for that effort," said Sen. Bryan Avila, R-Hialeah Gardens, who was among 99 Florida legislators who endorsed DeSantis when he joined the race in May.

Ninety-three, including Avila, remain by his side and many are heading to Iowa to help in the final stretch.

The strategy: Iowa or bust

DeSantis' aggressive Iowa strategy was out of necessity. He originally planned a broader national campaign, but retreated to Iowa after early stumbles to focus his energies on a state that fits his conservative profile, and where a strong showing still may revive his campaign.

Iowa tends to favor religious conservatives, and DeSantis is pitching himself in the final days of the race as the candidate who best represents the state's values of "faith, family and freedom."

Much of his closing message is targeted at his opponents, though.

"A lot of the time closing messages are positive reminders of why people like you, his is very much why the other candidates don’t deserve your vote," Conant said, adding: "“This is a very different message than what he rolled out on Twitter nine months ago which was very much about his record. That message obviously didn’t work … His campaign was full of a lot of promise at the beginning of the cycle; it’s closing by attacking Nikki Haley."

USA TODAY Network - Florida journalists in Iowa

Sarasota Herald-Tribune Political Editor Zac Anderson and Tallahassee Democrat photographer Alicia Devine will be in Iowa to cover the Iowa Caucuses for the USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida. Look for their coverage online and in print. Also follow them on X at @zacjanderson and @alicia_c_devine.

USA TODAY Network - Florida Capital Bureau reporter John Kennedy contributed.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Ron DeSantis jabs at Donald Trump, Nikki Haley in Iowa closing message