Republicans gather in Iowa to drive, eat and disagree

As Republican Party politicians and officials tossed out the red meat at an event at the Iowa State Fairgrounds on Saturday, Wayne Johnson, a 70-year-old farmer and financial adviser from Forest City, Iowa, had some quieter thoughts about the next president he might have. like to see.

The violence in American schools and public places, the tribalism in politics, the negativity of the nation’s elected officials — “If a leader can steer us in a positive direction, people will follow,” Johnson said.

His wife, Gloria, intervened. “I really don’t care about people’s sexual habits and I don’t want to hear about it all the time,” she said, annoyed at her party’s focus on social issues such as transgender care and LGBTQ rights. “Politicians are taking positions on ‘waking up’ that have more to do with sex than with promoting our country in a positive way.”

The event, dubbed “Roast and Ride” — an annual political rally featuring motorcycles and barbecues sponsored by Iowa’s junior Republican senator, Joni Ernst — exposed divisions in the party, with some attendees focusing on purse issues and tone and others were looking for a candidate who will take on the Democrats socially and culturally.

At Saturday’s meeting, eight presidential candidates were present, prominent and obscure, declared and undeclared. Ron DeSantis, the Governor of Florida; Mike Pence, the former vice president who will officially announce his run on Wednesday; South Carolina Senator Tim Scott; and Nikki Haley, former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, were there, along with hundreds of Iowa Republicans who will cast the first votes of the Republican nominating season in February.

The politicians had their pitches, waltzing across a stage decorated with flags and piled with bales of hay to rail against “deep state” bureaucrats, “wake up” corporations and liberals who indoctrinated and confused the children of America. Their biggest target, unsurprisingly, was President Biden, for everything from Afghanistan and the southern border to transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.

For the presidential nominees, winning over Iowa Republicans — with their strong religious leanings and tradition of political engagement — is the necessary first step to wrest the GOP from the front-runner for the nomination, Donald J. Trump, the only major candidate who did not make the trip on Saturday.

The candidates present tried to distinguish themselves from each other.

The next president, Pence assured, will “hear from heaven and he will heal this country.”

Ms. Haley agreed: “We have to leave the baggage and the negativity behind.”

Mr. DeSantis chose an analogy between culture and war, reminiscent of Winston Churchill, who once promised to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches, on the airfields, in the fields and on the streets. Mr. DeSantis pledged on Saturday to fight “awakened ideology” in the halls of Congress and boardrooms, saying, “We will never surrender.”

Iowa has gone from swing state to deep red more boldly than perhaps any other state, voting for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, then resolutely voting for Mr. Trump to go. 2020 nearly matched Mr. Obama’s nine-point margin 12 years earlier.

But voters in the public did not all have the same priorities, interests or solutions. A Republican presidential beauty pageant eight months before the Iowa caucuses will attract only the most ardent partisans, and the candidates understand that they are reaching for the fringes of their party, not the center.

Many voters expressed concern about the economy, especially inflation, a topic that most presidential candidates barely touched. Ron Greiner, an Omaha health insurance salesman, was furious that none of the candidates mentioned the Affordable Care Act — ever a reliable target of Republican attacks — or health care at all.

And while Ms. Johnson may be tired of all the talk about transgender issues, others jumped to their feet when Ms. Haley called transgender women participating in women’s sports “the greatest women’s issue of our time.”

Jackson Cox, a 17-year-old who will vote for the first time in 2024, drove from Albert Lea, Minn., to learn which candidates he will choose from. Top of mind for him are the tax dollars he says are being wasted before they reach US troops fighting for freedom in Ukraine – let alone no US troops fighting in Ukraine. Contrary to the conservative consensus, he argued that the United States should do more, not less, for Ukraine.

Diane Bebb, 66, of New London, Iowa, was concerned about inflation, gas and food prices, and “help wanted” signals for jobs seemingly unfilled.

“We could start producing oil again to help the economy and lower prices,” she said, though she wasn’t sure how more oil exploration would fill all those vacancies.

Her twin sister, Dione Cornelius of Bagley, Iowa, stepped in to reject the idea of ​​supplementing the workforce with more immigrants.

“They take all the benefits, free health care and all that stuff,” Mrs. Cornelius protested.

Mike Clark, 74, a semi-retired acoustics consultant, worried that “the rule of law is disappearing” not so much because of crime on the country’s streets, but because of an FBI and Justice Department out of control chasing Mr. Trump.

“Great pressure for the one world government, that’s what worries me most,” Mr Clark said, referring to a common topic of conspiracy theories. He recommended the book “The Creature From Jekyll Island,” which advances conspiracy theories about the creation of the Federal Reserve.

Amid that plethora of concerns, the porous border with Mexico was the one problem that seemed to be most felt. “What are we going to do with all these people?” asked Karen Clark, 81, of Des Moines.

Beyond that, Iowa’s conservatives seemed torn. They admitted unemployment was so low that jobs in the state were not being filled, but claimed the economy was a wreck.

Bill Dunton, 68, said he had been coming to Mrs. Ernst’s Roast and Ride on his Harley-Davidson from his home in Toledo, Iowa, for six years. His credit card debt was all but paid off, he said with relief. He was especially proud of the Chevy Silverado High Country diesel pickup he purchased in 2021 that was “made to pull.”

But, he said with conviction, “the economy is broken,” using an expletive to describe it.

Mr Dunton also spoke about his ordeal with Covid-19, hospitalized for 28 days on huge tanks of supplemental oxygen, which he was still attached to a month and a half after his discharge. Still, he added: “I think we have overreacted far too much” to the pandemic.

Responding to the multitude of illnesses on Iowans’ minds will pose a challenge to the hopeful presidential candidates. But after the program, Mr. Johnson that he was impressed with his choices and that he will have time to watch the race.

“It’s a long run up,” he noted. “Time has a way of revealing the truth.”