Presidential candidates, Pizza Ranches and a 9-month odyssey across Iowa for this expert

3,330 miles.

20 speeches and town halls.

14 different cities.

Six Pizza Ranches.

Eight candidates.

One state.

My odyssey into the 2024 Republican presidential race began at a “Meet Mike Pence” event on July 5, 2023, at a Pizza Ranch in Sioux City. The May polls on the GOP race in Iowa had Donald Trump at 50%, Ron DeSantis at 23%, Mike Pence at 8%, Nikki Haley at 6% and Tim Scott and Vivek Ramaswamy at 2%.

Things changed over nine months of campaigning, but one thing never changes about Iowa voters: They demand that a candidate win them over.

Many Iowans famously respond to the question, “Which candidate are you supporting?” with the lines, “I don’t know yet. I haven’t seen them all.”

GOP caucuses are notable for the use of Pizza Ranch restaurants for campaign events. There are 72 of them in Iowa, many located in small towns. One Pizza Ranch devotee, Rick Santorum, shockingly won the Iowa Caucuses in 2012. He unsuccessfully ran again in 2015.

I attended Rick Santorum’s final Pizza Ranch appearance and he noted an essential truth about Iowa: “Boy, you all are tough! I’ll spend so much time and so much effort on someone, and they’ll agree with everything I say, and then I’ll ask, ‘Will you caucus for me?’ And they’ll look at me, scratch their chin and say, ‘Well, you’re on my list.’”

Here’s the 2024 scorecard:

Mike Pence

Donald Trump’s vice president came to Iowa courting evangelicals and ended many of his comments with the phrase “So help me God.” Mike Pence said that his campaign was an “answer to call.” He had to defend his decision to certify Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory. In Holstein, he told a questioner, “With all due respect, President Trump was wrong about my authority that day and he’s still wrong,” and, “I believe that by God’s grace I did my duty that day. No second guessing.”

Pence employed a “Pizza Ranch strategy” but was never able to make inroads with the conservative Christian voters that were vital to his candidacy.

Result: Dropped out Oct. 28.

Tim Scott

A conservative senator from South Carolina, Tim Scott drew good crowds and rose in the polls briefly in the summer. He developed a “nice guy” reputation because of his easy-going personality and hesitancy to criticize DeSantis and Trump. The TV debates marked his downfall when he came across as timid and vague.

At an event in LeMars when asked if it was enough to be the nice guy in the field, he said, “It’s good to be a nice guy.” Iowans liked him but did not seem to think he was ready for prime-time.

Result: Dropped out Nov. 12.

Doug Burgum

The politically obscure North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum came to Iowa hoping to copy what Jimmy Carter did in 1976 and be a breakout star. In Cedar Rapids, he said he had a “great story to tell.” Burgum campaigned nonstop for eight months but never made that special connection with voters that propelled unknowns like Carter and Santorum.

Result: Dropped out Dec. 4.

Asa Hutchinson

The former two-term Arkansas governor’s campaign was a bit bewildering. Low-key and soft-spoken, it was unclear which voters Asa Hutchinson was courting. At the first GOP presidential debate, Hutchinson pointedly was the only candidate to not raise their hand when asked if they’d support Trump as nominee if he was convicted of a crime.

Many non-Trump voters were looking for a dynamic candidate from a more recent era and Hutchinson did not fit that bill.

Result: Sixth place in GOP caucus with 0.2%. Dropped out Jan. 16.

Vivek Ramaswamy

A rollicking, in your face, super conservative, boisterous 38-year-old multimillionaire, Vivek Ramaswamy rented a house in Des Moines and held hundreds of campaign events in Iowa. At an event, I attended in Estherville he gave a 40-minute speech and then answered questions for another hour.

He often made startling promises (“I’ll cut the federal workforce by 50% on day one”). For a political newcomer, he garnered incredible attention, but the voters he needed to vote for him stuck with DeSantis and Trump.

Result: Fourth place in GOP caucus with 7.7%. Dropped out Jan. 15.

Nikki Haley

The former governor of South Carolina and Trump’s first ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley came to Iowa offering voters an alternative to Trump and DeSantis with rock-solid credentials and promoting electability. The 51-year old argued that her mix of experience and relative youth could unify her party and ultimately the country.

In Clive, she said: “Republicans have lost seven of the last eight popular votes for president. That is nothing to be proud of. We should want to win the majority of Americans. But in order to do that, we’re going to have to have a new generational conservative leader. We’ve got to leave the past headlines behind us.”

She rose in the polls all fall but couldn’t get the second-place finish she so desperately needed.

Result: Third place in Iowa GOP caucus with 19.1%.

Ron DeSantis

The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis rolled into Iowa as the No. 1 challenger to Trump but found out immediately that Iowans weren’t going to give him anything for free. He was going to have to earn their support. He increased his Iowa appearances and although a somewhat stiff campaigner he started wading into crowds and talking to voters one-on-one.

His early theme was attacking “wokeism,” but that shifted to more of an emphasis on his accomplishments in Florida. As he told a crowd in Cedar Rapids: “The time for talk is over. We need people that produce results.”

His second-place finish was not what he’d hoped for but keeps him in the race.

Result: Second place in GOP caucus with 21.2%.

Donald Trump

The controversial, oft-indicted, millionaire former president, Donald Trump eschewed traditional one-on-one campaigning in lieu of large rallies, which were like a music concert, cosplay convention, sporting event and celebrity roast all rolled into a political campaign speech.

Trump was at 50% in the polls for all of 2023 and hoped for a landslide in Iowa and thus to sew up the nomination immediately. He told an Ottumwa rally that he was looking for an enormous victory on Janu. 15 and “2024 is our final battle.”

He didn’t get his massive landslide but still got half the voters to stick with him.

Result: First place in Iowa GOP caucus with 51%.

Bob Beatty has a doctorate in political science from Arizona State University and specializes in Kansas and national elections, with a special expertise on the Iowa Caucus and campaigning for president. He has attended and covered the national political party conventions in 2008 and 2016 and 15 presidential debates from 1996-2020.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Presidential candidates, Pizza Ranches part of Iowa caucuses odyssey