MILWAUKEE – Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis expressed his push to eventually become the party’s nominee for president to the Iowa Republican Party on Wednesday during a speech on the terrace of an Italian-style villa overlooking Lake Michigan.
In his 10-minute remarks, DeSantis, who unsuccessfully challenged Donald Trump for the nomination this year, praised the policies Iowa’s Republican lawmakers have pushed over the years and said he would keep an eye on the state for more ideas.
The Republican delegates from Iowa are especially vital for any Republican politician who wants to win the Iowa caucuses. It remains the party’s first nationwide presidential contest, although not for the Democrats.
“You’ve had strong leadership in your state, starting with your governor,” DeSantis said, referring to Gov. Kim Reynolds. “But your legislature — they’ve done more in their time in office than most states have in decades.”
Iowa state lawmakers, he said, “should continue to lead by example,” adding that Republicans in Florida “will not allow them to outdo us.”
“If you do good things that we haven’t done, I will follow through and do that,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis attacks Biden
During the Republican National Convention at the Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, DeSantis expressed his hope that Democrats would not nominate President Joe Biden as their likely nominee.
“I hope and pray that they don’t take the nomination away from him. We want him to be the Democratic nominee,” DeSantis said to cheers and applause. “And I will be cheering him on. I know the knives are out.”
Voters had already seen at the first presidential debate that Biden did not have what it takes to be president, he said.
“If someone applied for a position on a mosquito control committee and had Biden’s faculty, they would come to my office and say they wanted [on the] “If I came to the mosquito control committee, I would say, ‘No, you can’t do the job,'” DeSantis said. “So he’s obviously not going to be able to do the job, and that’s good for us. That’s what we want.”
As DeSantis spoke, a person behind the scenes told States Newsroom that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, had urged the Democratic National Committee to delay Biden’s formal nomination in a virtual roll call vote to be held before the party’s convention.
Schumer spoke with House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York and the two agreed to the postponement, the source said.
Ernst doubts that Biden will be nominated
Iowa U.S. Senator Joni Ernst said during the event that she does not believe Biden will remain the Democratic presidential nominee for much longer and that GOP voters planning to watch the DNC convention in August should have their popcorn ready.
“For over a year, when I’ve met with politicians at the national level and with the people of Iowa, I’ve always said: I don’t think President Biden will be the nominee,” Ernst said. “Now that’s kind of coming true.”
Ernst referred a survey A study released earlier in the day by The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed that about two-thirds of Democrats do not want to see Biden as their official presidential candidate.
“Oh my God, guys, he’s in a nosedive,” said Ernst. “And the sad thing is that they’ve dug themselves in so deep now. How on earth are they going to get rid of him?”
Ernst praised Trump’s decision to select U.S. Senator JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate, saying she believes “he will appeal to a demographic of young voters that we may not have tapped into as much yet.”
“I think we’ll be able to gradually lure people out of the Democratic Party,” Ernst said. “Maybe they won’t switch to the Republicans, but we’ve certainly found a way for them to support our Trump-Vance ticket.”
Hinson talks about goals
U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson from Iowa said that as the mother of “a 13-year-old who could be fighting for our country in a few years,” she was particularly interested in policies aimed at deterrence and protecting the United States.
“There is still a lot of work ahead of us, but I think we are highly motivated to do it because we know what is at stake,” she said.
Hinson also spoke about her key goals in Congress, including reducing government spending and promoting rural issues as well as safety and security.
The Iowa delegation to the RNC also held an event at Pabst Mansion on Tuesday, attended by Texas U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt and Vivek Ramaswamy, another unsuccessful presidential candidate.
