Ron DeSantis hopes his culture war battles will resonate as he campaigns across Iowa

ADEL, Iowa — Ron DeSantis is the governor of Florida, with a population nearing 22 million and a state economy so massive that if it were a country, it would be ranked 15th in the world, ahead of Mexico and Indonesia.

But he’s running for the 2024 Republican nomination for president, and the first votes in that race will be cast at the Iowa Caucuses on Jan. 15. So on a muggy August day he arrives in Adel, Iowa — population 6,726 — to meet voters, eat fried chicken and give a speech at “Brenna Bird’s Big Barn Bash.”

And in an “only in Iowa” moment before he enters the barn, DeSantis is greeted by the bleating of goats only a few feet behind him as the Dallas County Fairgrounds are not only hosting the governor of Florida but also a boer goat show.

DeSantis has declared he’s “all-in” in Iowa, and sharing your space is part of that commitment.

GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis gets personal in Iowa

DeSantis has been characterized by some as a stiff and aloof campaigner, but in Adel and the next day in Cedar Rapids (at another “BBQ Bash”), he wades into crowds and makes a point to talk to many Iowans one on one and poses for selfies willingly.

He’s also accompanied by a true campaign asset in his wife, Casey, a former TV newscaster who is popular in her own right and even had her own selfie line in Cedar Rapids.

As a sitting governor, DeSantis has an omnipresent security detail that watches carefully but doesn’t get in the way of the throngs of Iowans eager to meet the second-most famous candidate in the race.

DeSantis wisely lets Iowans know how important they are to his campaign. In Adel, he starts his speech with a story about how he tours the state with Casey and his three young children and how he even had them watch the iconic 1989 baseball movie set in Iowa, “Field of Dreams.”

During their last campaign trip, his son brought his mitt along.

“We went over by the corn and he starts throwing me balls and said, ‘Daddy, is this heaven?’" DeSantis said. "I say, 'No, son, it’s Iowa.” After the applause, he proclaims, “So we are here!”

DeSantis tells prospective Iowa voters that he’s running for president because he wants to “reverse the decline of this country. I want to restore it to its proper greatness,” and that he’s the person to do it because he’s a man of action.

In Cedar Rapids, he said: “The time for talk is over. We need people that produce results,” and “I can pledge to you this: I will get the job done.”

He also mentions that he won’t be sidetracked by “distraction,” which is, at least in this appearance, the closest he gets to the subject of Donald Trump and the many legal issues swirling around the Trump candidacy.

Ron DeSantis campaigns on subject bans, COVID and 'woke mind virus'

While Iowa holds electoral power for DeSantis, it’s what he’s done in Florida that forms one pillar of his campaign, and he’s proud — and defiant — in listing and defending all he’s done.

The list includes a parent’s bill of rights and school subject bans, saying, “We made sure our schools were about education, not indoctrination!” and “We got critical race theory and gender ideology out,” which resulted in a battle with the Disney Corporation.

He is unapologetic about antagonizing this incredibly important asset to his state, saying in Cedar Rapids, “And if we had to stand up to Disney to make that happen, we stood up to Disney.”

On issues surrounding the southern border, he noted that Florida not only banned sanctuary cities, and said, “We even were able to transport illegal aliens to beautiful Martha’s Vineyard.”

The second pillar of DeSantis’ campaign is his belief that Florida’s COVID-19 non-lockdown policies were not only correct but also that the approaches of other states and the federal government were disastrous. In particular, DeSantis directs his ire at former Trump COVID adviser Anthony Fauci.

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Said DeSantis in Adel, “We refused to let Florida descend into some type of Faucian dystopia,” and that if he’s elected president, he would “usher in a reckoning” for those responsible for federal COVID policies, adding, “People like Fauci must be held accountable.”

The third pillar of his campaign is the battle against an ideology he calls “this woke mind virus.” For DeSantis, “wokeism” is a virus, an infection, a corruption.

In Adel, he said, “If woke ideology is able to take hold of the government and all the other major institutions in this country, it’s going to destroy this country.” As president, he said he would “leave the woke agenda in the dustbin of history!”

Iowans respond well to Ron DeSantis but still want to hear all options

The crowds in Iowa react enthusiastically to DeSantis, and at the end of his speech in Adel, amidst the cheers, he gets caught up in the love and yells: “Thank you! God bless you guys! God bless the great state of Iowa! We love it here!”

But outside, as people filed out, I still heard that classic Iowa refrain from a woman speaking to a reporter, “I liked him a lot, but I need to see the others.”

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: Ron DeSantis steers behemoth campaign into tiny Iowa towns in GOP race