DeSantis’ two-pronged approach in Iowa: confronting Trump on abortion and getting personal
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis paused, looked down and told a party room full of conservative Iowa Christians something he had never said publicly before: His wife, Casey DeSantis, suffered a miscarriage during her first pregnancy several years ago.
The couple, Mr. DeSantis explained Friday at a forum for Republican presidential candidates organized by an influential evangelical group, had tried to conceive before traveling to Israel.
“We went to Ruth’s grave in Hebron – Ruth, chapter 4, verse 13 – and we prayed,” Mr. DeSantis said, citing the Bible, at the event in Des Moines. “We prayed a lot about starting a family, and lo and behold, we go back to the United States and a while later we got pregnant.” But unfortunately we lost that first child.”
The deeply personal revelation — in response to a question about the importance of the nuclear family — was an unexpected moment for Mr. DeSantis, who is usually tight-lipped about both his faith and his family life. On the campaign trail, he rotates through a limited series of anecdotes about Ms. DeSantis and their three young children, as well as his religious beliefs. Yet he only briefly touched on his wife’s miscarriage at the Iowa event, simply calling it a “difficult case” and a test of faith.
Mr. DeSantis, a Roman Catholic, has championed Iowa’s religious right, which helped make the last three competitive Republican presidential caucuses a reality for candidates who wore their faith on their sleeves. White evangelical voters are likely to play a decisive role in the Jan. 15 caucuses, the first contest in the 2024 Republican primaries, and they often turn to politicians who speak the language of the church.
“You have to speak authentically from the heart,” says Terry Amann, a conservative pastor from Des Moines. “Anyone can quote Bible verses.”
If Mr. DeSantis has any hope of defeating former President Donald J. Trump, the front-runner who gives him a roughly 30-point lead in Iowa polls, it lies in winning over conservative Christian voters while continuing to challenge from Nikki Haley, the president. former governor of South Carolina, who is seen as more moderate.
A DeSantis victory in Iowa remains a long shot, but Mr. Trump’s criticism of harsh abortion restrictions favorite by many evangelical voters in Iowa may have created a path for Florida’s governor to strengthen his position. The former president has described a six-week abortion ban signed by Mr DeSantis in Florida as “a terrible mistake”. Mr. Trump has blamed extreme positions on abortion for recent Republican losses at the polls and, in his bid to win over moderates in the general election, has avoided supporting a federal abortion ban. That has deeply disappointed some evangelical leaders and voters, who cheered him after his Supreme Court appointments helped overturn Roe v. Wade.
“Trump has retreated from his pro-life position,” said Mike Demastus, leader of an evangelical church in Des Moines. “And that made voters like me pause and be willing to listen to other candidates.”
Mr. DeSantis is trying to capitalize on concerns like those of Mr. Demastus. As he opened his new Iowa campaign headquarters outside Des Moines on Saturday, the governor told reporters that Trump’s comments on abortion had been the real “mistake.” He had previously said of Mr. Trump, during an interview with an Iowa radio station, that “all pro-lifers should know that he is preparing to sell you out.”
Yet Mr. Trump remains immensely popular among conservative Christians, and not just because of his role in the overturning of Roe. Mr. Trump moved the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, an issue of great importance to many evangelicals. He is also credited with anti-immigration policies and a strong economy during his presidency, reflecting the fact that many religious voters have political concerns that go beyond their faith.
Even many of the evangelical voters who support Mr. DeSantis are deeply grateful to the former president.
“The reversal of Roe v. Wade — I never thought this would happen in my lifetime, and he did that,” Jerry Buseman, 54, a retired school principal from Hampton, Iowa, said of Mr. Trump.
Now the DeSantis and Trump campaigns are locked in a back-and-forth to win over faith leaders and voters. Evangelicals are the largest religious group among Iowa Republicans, accounting for more than a third of their ranks. according to Pew Research Center. So far, polls suggest Trump is winning the race for their votes. The former president had the support of 51 percent of white evangelical voters, compared with 30 percent for Mr. DeSantis, according to a September poll by CBS News and YouGov. It’s a big shift from 2016, when evangelicals flowed to Ted Cruz instead of Mr. Trump, who helped the Republican senator from Texas win the caucuses that year.
“Trump has already proven that he has a backbone,” said Brad Sherman, a pastor and state lawmaker who has supported Mr. Trump, even as he said he wished the former president would take a “stronger stand” on abortion. “He has shown that he will do what he says.”
Like Mr. Sherman, many Iowans who support Mr. Trump seem willing to forgive his more recent comments on abortion. Only 40 percent of Trump supporters agreed that he was right to criticize the six-week abortion ban. according to an October poll by The Des Moines Register, NBC News and Mediacom.
Alex Latcham, the Trump campaign’s early states director, said the former president had delivered on issues that had been “the top priorities” for evangelical voters for decades. In his office in Des Moines, Mr. Latcham said, he keeps a map of Iowa showing the locations of more than 100 religious leaders who have supported Mr. Trump.
“There is plenty of time, but right now it is Trump’s to lose,” said Steve Scheffler, the president of the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, which is remaining neutral during the caucuses.
To counter Mr. Trump’s popularity, Mr. DeSantis held his first official campaign rally in May at a church outside Des Moines, where a group of pastors prayed for him. He has rolled out its own messages of support from more than 100 religious leaders across the state. Before every Republican presidential debate, he has invited a pastor to pray for him and his wife backstage in the green room. His campaign holds a monthly video call for pastors. And unlike Mr. Trump, he has attended several church services in Iowa, including with Iowa evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats, who hosted Mr. DeSantis at the forum where he discussed his wife’s miscarriage.
Never Back Down, a super PAC backing the DeSantis campaign, has produced ads accusing Mr. Trump of “betraying the pro-life movement,” questioning his support for Israel and his attacks on Kim Reynolds, the popular Iowa movement, criticizes. governor who has endorsed Mr. DeSantis and also signed a six-week abortion ban.
“DeSantis has done a great job of networking with evangelicals,” said David Kochel, a veteran Iowa political strategist. ‘He is leading the campaign the right way. The problem is he’s doing it against someone who has already accomplished something for evangelical voters.”
Ms. Haley, the other runner-up in the race, who is now tied with Mr. DeSantis in many Iowa polls, does not appear to be pursuing the state’s faith leaders as aggressively, and her more measured way of talking about abortion has has turned off many evangelicals.
Olivia Perez-Cubas, a spokeswoman for the Haley campaign, highlighted Ms. Haley’s “steadfast support of Israel” as a reason for evangelical voters to get behind her. And she pointed to Mrs. Haley’s recent approval by Marlys Popma, a prominent anti-abortion activist in Iowa.
For Mr. DeSantis, a lack of folksy charm could still be a problem in Iowa, despite his efforts to be more personal with evangelical voters.
Evangelical voters “want to see the heart,” said Sam Brownback, a conservative Christian and former Republican senator from Kansas whose own 2008 presidential campaign was unsuccessful. “They want to see what you really are inside.”
The last three Republicans to win the contentious caucuses — former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Mr. Cruz — all spoke comfortably about their faith. (None of them captured the nomination.)
Mr. DeSantis, who has been criticized as pompous on the campaign trail, was not built in that form. Instead, he is relying on his record as governor of Florida, which, in addition to the six-week abortion ban, also includes laws to restrict the rights of transgender people and limit discussions about sexuality in schools.
When a reporter asked why he was a better fit with Iowa evangelicals than Mr. Trump — a thrice-married former Democrat — Mr. DeSantis responded that he was “a better representative of their values.”
“I have a better record of actually keeping my promises and fighting important battles on behalf of children, on behalf of families and on behalf of religious freedom,” he said Saturday at a coffee shop in Ottumwa, Iowa.
Heidi Sokol, 51, a Republican voter who teaches at a Christian school in Clear Lake, Iowa, said she did not care that Mr. DeSantis talked far more about policy than his personal faith when she saw him speak at a church in Des Moines. this fall.
“We don’t hire the president to be our pastor,” Ms. Sokol said.
Ruth Igielnik contributed reporting from Washington, DC; Ann Hinga Klein of Ottumwa; And Chris Cameron from Newton, Iowa.