Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis completed his tour of Iowa’s 99 counties on December 2, a milestone he pursued with dogmatic zeal as his White House aspirations grew closely tied to his performance in the Republican Party’s first presidential nominating contest.
DeSantis marked the occasion with a rally in Jasper County, just east of Des Moines at a venue called the Thunderdome — a fitting host for a candidate in a fight for political survival.
“I don’t think doing the 99 counties is just about the caucus. … The fact that I’m willing to do this, that should show you that I consider myself a servant, not a ruler. And that’s how people that get elected should consider themselves,” he said at the rally.
With the January 15 Iowa caucuses just around the corner, DeSantis remains well behind the party frontrunner, former President Donald Trump, and is running out of time to catch a spark.
Meanwhile, the surging campaign of former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has continued to turn its attention to the Hawkeye State, further complicating DeSantis’ path to a victory in a place he is all-in on winning.
Now, DeSantis’ presidential bid hinges on how Iowa Republicans, who have long prized retail campaigning, respond to the early and persistent connections he has made while logging thousands of miles through the state’s cornfields and wind farms.
“I think you have to do that to win Iowa,” DeSantis said on November 30 about visiting the state’s 99 counties. “I think that’s what voters want to see. I think they want to be able to meet you, they want to be able to ask your questions.”
On the road to appearing in every Iowa county — a feat known as “the full Grassley,” named after the state’s well-traveled senior senator, Chuck Grassley — DeSantis has regularly appeared in parts of the state Trump is unlikely to visit.
He has shaken countless hands and answered questions from potential supporters in dozens of small shops, bars, manufacturing plants and similar venues, from the Missouri River to the west and Mississippi River to the east as well as the borders of Minnesota to the north and Missouri to the south.
It’s an undertaking DeSantis first embarked on this summer to stabilize a campaign that was struggling to break out and was dealing with cost overruns caused in part by an overly ambitious national push out of the gate.
Doubling down on Iowa with stops in all corners of the state became a guiding star for the revamped effort behind DeSantis, which also involved moving most of his staff from Tallahassee, Florida, to Des Moines, replacing his campaign manager and adding David Polyansky, a seasoned Iowa operative who previously worked for Never Back Down, a super PAC supporting the Florida governor.
