Our DeSantis and Haley reporters switched places. Here's what they found.

For months, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, Republican candidates locked in a heated rivalry for second place in their party's 2024 presidential nominating contest, have been touring Iowa ahead of the nation's first caucuses.

And we as well.

As beat reporters, we've been following these two candidates so long that we can recite every punch line, anticipate the applause and guess their possible answers to voters' questions on the campaign trail. Normally, Nicholas Nehamas is on the road with Mr. DeSantis, the governor of Florida, and Jazmine Ulloa follows Ms. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina.

On the last Saturday before the Iowans vote, we switched roles for a day. Nicholas drove northeast from Des Moines to a Haley event at a brewery in Cedar Falls. Jazmine headed west to a DeSantis event in Council Bluffs.

Here's what we learned.

The Vibes

NICHOLAS The first thing I noticed when I walked into Second State Brewing in Cedar Falls: Ms. Haley's warm-up music wasn't deafening. At DeSantis events, the music drowns out every thought and makes it difficult to talk to voters. Which feels almost intentional.

The Haley crowd, about 60 people, was also a bit younger and more suburban than I was used to. One voter told me she was a New York Times subscriber — something I don't normally hear when following Mr. DeSantis.

About 15 minutes before Ms. Haley took the stage, someone announced over the sound system that reporters should go to the back of the room. I ignored that and continued to talk to voters. Finally a very polite Haley employee came to pick me up. The tightly controlled environment felt like the early days of the DeSantis campaign, when harried staffers tried to keep us away from voters and sometimes even the candidate.

JAZMINE As I approached the doors of the Grass Wagon in Council Bluffs, I could already hear the music pounding. The pop and classic rock setlist is similar to the setlist played before Haley events. But inside, at least today, the volume was not overwhelming. Sorry, Niek!

Most likely because of the freezing temperatures (my eyes watered from the cold, and even the locals complained), the crowd appeared to be small, no more than 100. But it was energetic and, during Mr. DeSantis' remarks, quick to offer applause. What immediately struck me was the number of attendees holding DeSantis signs and wearing campaign stickers. When I spoke to voters, it was clear that many were staunch Republicans – and voted decisively for Mr. DeSantis.

When I looked around, all I saw were a few large American and Iowa state flags, with decorations that seemed sparser than I expected. Ms. Haley has argued that Mr. DeSantis is a prolific spender of campaign dollars, citing his flights on private planes and the staff cuts he made amid a cash crunch, but his display, at least now, resembled Ms. Haley's: Just enough .

The voters

NICHOLAS Haley-curious voters feel like a very different part of the Republican electorate: more moderate, less concerned about what people do in private, and not necessarily part of the local Republican activist group. Most people I spoke to describe themselves as socially moderate. Two had never had a caucus before. Most said they were never Trumpers. Some were undecided, though they leaned toward Mrs. Haley.

DeSantis voters I've spoken to are likely hardline conservatives deeply involved in local Republican politics.

One undecided voter especially surprised me: Peter Salmon, 35, an evangelical pastor. His No. 1 issue was abortion, on which Ms. Haley has been far less vocal than Mr. DeSantis. But Mr. Salmon appreciated her inclusive language. “I think she has the same pro-life beliefs as I do,” he said, even as he acknowledged her stance was “a little confusing.” Still, Mr. Salmon said, “She's not talking about the issue like a typical Republican candidate. She knows how to win people over.”

JAZMINE Many of the voters I spoke to had long ago voted for Mr. DeSantis. Some had even done so before he began his presidential bid. They could take out his fights against Disney; Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation's former top infectious disease expert who was the face of the administration's response to Covid-19; and left-wing academia. They admired his military experience. They loved his wife, Casey DeSantis.

Michael Durham, 47, a service manager, and his wife, Jenny, 45, cited Mr. DeSantis' handling of the coronavirus pandemic, his hardline stance on immigration and his promises for “educational freedom for parents” as reasons for their support.

“Personally, I was hoping he would run, just seeing what he had done in Florida,” said Ms. Durham, a nurse.

The participants at Ms. Haley's events are certainly more varied: independents, Republicans and Democrats, many of whom are undecided and eager to have their questions answered.

The surrogates

JAZMINE So many surrogates! Mrs. DeSantis warmed up the crowd, addressing her husband and earning laughs when she said she didn't mind his critics calling her “the Walmart Melania,” a reference to Melania Trump.

“Okay, she's beautiful,” she said. “And yes, I show up at Walmart because of Joe Biden and his economic policies. Everything is expensive.”

Top endorsers including Governor Kim Reynolds of Iowa; Bob Vander Plaats, an influential leader of the Christian Right; and Representative Chip Roy of Texas were on hand to tout Mr. DeSantis' conservative credentials and paint a bleak picture of the United States without Mr. DeSantis at the helm.

At Haley events, surrogates are usually volunteers or state legislators who talk about her ability to build consensus and connect with people.

NICHOLAS Haley had no surrogates to amplify her message Saturday, perhaps reflecting her thin network of Iowa endorsers. Maybe her sweater did the job of introducing her. The text read: 'He who dares, wins.'

The stump

NICHOLAS Ms. Haley's speech was where the contrast between the two struck me most. She made her points quickly, directly and often personally. She did not use acronyms and did not delve very deeply into the policy or her file. She spoke openly about her family, including the difficulties her husband, Michael, experienced after returning from Afghanistan.

“When he came home, life became difficult,” she said. “He couldn't hear any loud noises. He couldn't be in the crowd.” I almost never hear Mr. DeSantis, a Navy lawyer deployed to Iraq, say much about his military service.

Although Jazmine tells me that Ms. Haley's speech is almost word for word identical at each stop, it did not sound memorized or overly rehearsed. The whole experience seemed to make it much easier to listen to than your typical DeSantis speech.

JAZMINE Mr. DeSantis' stump definitely had a more abrasive tone. He bellowed into the microphone, standing mostly in one spot, while Ms. Haley tends to pace back and forth across the center of the room.

At times he would get so detailed about the issues that it was difficult to follow him. He continued his battle with Disney, China, Dr. Fauci and “DEI” (diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives), and delivered long-winded statements against left-wing ideology and big corporations.

“We are going to take all the social issues, all the politics, all the awake people,” he said. “We're going to take it out. We throw it in the trash.”

The attacks

NICHOLAS Mr. Trump was almost entirely absent from Ms. Haley's brief, polished speech, save for her stock line: “Chaos follows him.” Voters didn't seem to need more. A woman in the crowd repeated that phrase to me when I asked her what she liked about Mrs. Haley.

Mr. DeSantis continually shoots Ms. Haley, and his insults become increasingly sharp. But Ms. Haley said barely a word about him in Cedar Falls, only criticizing his electability: “Ron is not beating Biden,” she said.

JAZMINE: DeSantis came out at both Mr. Trump and Ms. Haley early in his speech, delivering what — as Nick has reported — has become something of a campaign slogan: “Donald Trump is on the run pursuing his problems. Nikki Haley is running for office over the donor issues. I run from your problems.”

Unlike Ms. Haley, who tends to wait until the end to deliver her sharpest blows, Mr. DeSantis peppered his comments with criticism of her and Mr. Trump. At one point he tried to portray her as an establishment figure too liberal for Iowa Republicans: “I had a debate on CNN the other day with Hillary,” he said, slipping up. “I mean Nikki.”

The cover

JAZMINE Mr. DeSantis answered questions from reporters! And also from voters. Ms. Haley usually answers questions from voters and stays to shake hands and take photos with supporters long after her events. But she usually ignores the group of journalists who follow her from place to place.

Voters at Mr. DeSantis' event pressed him on his plans to overhaul agencies, protect family farms from foreign interests and help people affected by vaccine mandates, among other things. In almost every response, Mr. DeSantis returned to the battle he had waged, or planned to wage, against his ideological opponents. He also delved into conservation efforts and health care policy in Florida in esoteric detail.

NICHOLAS Wait, it's over? Isn't she going to answer questions from voters? No, she's really done.

This was the biggest shock of all for me. Voters in Iowa and New Hampshire have been known to bombard presidential candidates with questions whenever they get the chance. But Ms. Haley has sometimes struggled in such situations, especially when a constituent asked her to discuss the causes of the Civil War and she did not mention slavery.

For a campaign reporter, those Q&A sessions are where you really see who the candidates are, how they think and whether they can connect with voters.

I asked the Haley team: Would she answer the questions of the reporters present? (In journalistic jargon, that's a 'gaggle'.) The answer was no. However, Ms. Haley did answer a few questions from a television reporter. And she took lots of photos with voters and their children, chatting happily. When it was a seven-year-old girl's turn, Mrs. Haley leaned over and whispered in her ear, “Remember, you're amazing.”

I don't remember many of these types of interactions involving Mr. DeSantis.