Ron DeSantis PAC flexes ground game ahead of Iowa Caucuses. Is it enough to beat Trump?

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — With less than a week until the Iowa Caucuses, the PAC supporting Ron DeSantis is flexing its operation in Iowa, betting that a robust network of precinct captains and canvassers will boost the Florida governor to a strong showing on caucus night.

Several dozen staffers and volunteers buzzed around the Never Back Down office Saturday, packing boxes for precinct captains and making calls to would-be caucusgoers. A mountain of pizzas and a half-finished puzzle sat on a table next to a nearly-life-size cardboard cutout of DeSantis.

A game of bags, adorned with a Ron DeSantis sticker, lay dormant as volunteers ate lunch and made calls.

"I'm seeing a lot of people getting involved," said Amy Meyer, a 51-year-old volunteer from Urbandale. "When I first started coming here, a lot of times there would be a few people, but not a whole lot. We've got lots more people. … I think it's going to be a pretty good turnout for Ron DeSantis."

Unlike frontrunner Donald Trump, DeSantis has taken a traditional approach to the Iowa Caucuses. He visited all of Iowa's 99 counties, stopping at small-town Pizza Ranches and the World's Largest Popcorn Ball. He won the support of Iowa's popular Gov. Kim Reynolds and evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats.

Never Back Down, a PAC supporting DeSantis but not directly affiliated with the DeSantis campaign, led the bulk of Iowa organizing for the Florida governor. PAC officials say they've recruited more than 1,600 precinct captains for Caucus Day, spanning nearly every caucus site in the state.

"These aren’t lukewarm or cold commitments. These are people that Never Back Down’s staff talks to every week. These are red hot commitments," said Jess Szymanski, a spokesperson for Never Back Down. "They are definitely going to show up, and they are going to bring five to 10 other people with them to their precinct site."

The campaign, meanwhile, enlisted 517 Iowans and out-of-state supporters to speak in favor of DeSantis at caucus sites across the state.

"Nobody's worked harder and no one has done it more the Iowa way than Gov. DeSantis," said Sam Cooper, political director for the DeSantis campaign.

The Jan. 15 Iowa Caucus will test whether DeSantis' shoe leather campaigning and Never Back Down's organization can rival the fame and fervor of Trump, who remains a dominant figure in the Republican Party and leads precaucus polls by more than 30 points.

Although the former president has made far fewer Iowa appearances than DeSantis, his campaign said it had appointed more than 2,000 precinct captains by late December, tasking each captain with recruiting ten more supporters for Trump.

"That organizational strength is key, and what I'm seeing right now among the frontrunners is there are at least two of them that have Ted Cruz-like organizations ready to roll," Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann told reporters at the party's legislative breakfast Monday.

Kaufmann wouldn't say which campaigns he was referring to.

Never Back Down boasts statewide network of orange-capped precinct captains

Meyer, the Urbandale volunteer, wore a long, colorful necklace to her Saturday shift at the Never Back Down headquarters in West Des Moines — a rented office the PAC calls "Fort Benning," after an Army base originally named for a Confederate general.

"This is the first time I’ve done more than go to an event and listen to a speech," Meyer said, recalling several months of phone-banking for DeSantis.

Meyer is one of the 1,627 Iowans who will serve as a precinct captain for DeSantis on caucus night. Captains are tasked with making the final push in their area: contacting friends, family and neighbors to make sure everyone is ready and able to make it to their caucus site.

More: How Donald Trump's 2024 campaign quietly built a grassroots juggernaut for the Iowa Caucuses

Captains may also make a speech at their precinct location to support DeSantis. Never Back Down sent out packages to each precinct captain with bright orange hats and shirts, and talking points if they decide to speak at their caucus site.

Meyer said she thinks caucus night will go well for DeSantis, but she's "a little concerned" about public speaking.

"There’s a chance that I might try to talk, and that’s not in my wheelhouse," she said.

Never Back Down officials say they've tested the reliability of their precinct captains for months, keeping track of who's attending events and volunteering. People became more connected to the campaign and to each other, they say, through frequent contact.

“That's why we're having (precinct captains) talk to their strike lists ahead of time," said Noah Jennings, Never Back Down’s Iowa Political Director. "For instance, if Ed has a truck break down, he knows Randy has a car that’s going to go and pick him up and bring him to the caucus. They know who to call and they're able to coordinate that kind of ride and make sure that their people will still get out.”

DeSantis and supporters scoff at polls showing him lagging behind Trump

DeSantis and his endorsers have denounced polling in Iowa speeches over the past month, arguing that polls showing Trump ahead are an attempt by "the media" to dissuade Republicans from voicing their opposition to the former president.

"The media, they want to act like you don't even matter, that you shouldn't even vote. Like, 'Why even do it, just take a poll and then go from there,'" DeSantis said at an Ankeny sports bar on Saturday. "We know that's not how these things work."

More: DeSantis says Iowa Caucus polling is 'never accurate.' We checked. Here's what we found:

Political polls are a snapshot of a moment in time, not a predictor of future performance. But snapshots from early and mid-December show DeSantis trailing Trump by more than 30 percentage points in Iowa.

In a Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll conducted in early December, 51% of likely Republican caucusgoers said Trump was their first choice and 19% said DeSantis was their first choice. Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley won 16% of likely Republican caucusgoers.

And while Never Back Down volunteers make their final pre-caucus push, Trump's and Haley's campaigns will do the same.

Haley ramped up her Iowa travel schedule and ground game in December, bringing on an experienced Iowa spokesperson and new regional staffers. The conservative Americans for Prosperity group, which endorsed Haley, sent more than 100 people to Iowa to knock doors.

"It's ground game," Haley told the Des Moines Register in a December interview. "We're making sure that every area is covered. Right now we're getting caucus captains and precinct chairmen and all of these things. We're trying to just make sure we've got every area covered. And they're doing a great job."

Over the past several months, Trump's visits to Iowa have included informational videos about how to caucus and how to register as a caucus captain. And it will be a battle of the ballcaps on caucus night, as the Trump precinct captains don white hats with gold script and the DeSantis captains wear a high-visibility orange.

"The poll numbers are scary because we're leading by so much. The key is you have to go out and vote," Trump told supporters in Waterloo on Dec. 19. "If we win in a massive number, but it's a little bit less than that, they'll say, 'Oh, he didn't meet expectations.'"

Galen Bacherier and Stephen Gruber-Miller contributed reporting.

Katie Akin is a politics reporter for the Register. Reach her at kakin@registermedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @katie_akin.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Can Ron DeSantis' traditional Iowa Caucus campaign catch Donald Trump?