Struggling DeSantis Has Something to Celebrate

Popular Iowa governor decides to endorse Florida colleague for GOP nomination
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 5, 2023 12:15 PM CST
Iowa Governor Makes Decision on GOP Race
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appears at an event with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds in March in Davenport, Iowa.   (AP Photo/Ron Johnson, File)

Ron DeSantis is channeling most of his effort and resources into winning the Iowa caucuses, making campaign trips to 87 of the state's 99 counties so far, and now he has something to show for it. At a rally Monday in Des Moines, Gov. Kim Reynolds plans to endorse DeSantis for the Republican presidential nomination, the Des Moines Register reports. It's a major victory for the Florida governor in his attempt to slow front-runner Donald Trump at the beginning of Republican voting in the race: Reynolds' 81% favorable rating in the state, as an August poll found, far exceeds that of any of the GOP candidates for president.

"I think what she's been able to do in Iowa has really been a model for how people should govern," DeSantis told reporters last month. They've been like-minded in their governing, with both signing laws to prohibit abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, prohibit instruction in LGBTQ topics in schools, and make available state-funded private school scholarships to all families. Their praise for each other and chumminess—they sat together at a football game while Trump watched from above—has irked the former president, and he didn't take the endorsement well. "Kim Reynolds apparently has begun her retirement tour early as she clearly does not have any ambition for higher office," his campaign said in a statement.

DeSantis is running 27 points behind Trump in Iowa, the most recent NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll shows. That has DeSantis tied for second with Nikki Haley, who's on the ascent, per NBC News. Reynolds had said she'd stay neutral in the race, saying she wanted all of the GOP candidates to feel welcome in Iowa, then suggested in August and in October that she might change her mind. "It's just too important," Reynolds said last month, per the Register. "This next election is too important." (More Republican presidential primaries stories.)

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