Bob Vander Plaats, who heads The Family Leader organization encompassing Marriage Matters, Iowa Family PAC, and Iowans for Freedom in the Hawkeye State, has endorsed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis shortly after accepting nearly $100,000 from his team.
Discussing his endorsement of DeSantis with Brett Baier, the Iowa Republican was confronted with the Donald Trump campaign’s statement on the matter:
“Over 150 faith leaders in Iowa are organizing their congregations for President Trump and not a single one demanded nearly $100k like Bob Vander Plaat$ did from Ron DeSanctus. When you are actually the leader of a movement like President Trump is, people are willing to support you for free.”
This follows an investigation by Reuters in August revealing “[t]he DeSantis campaign, a super PAC linked to him and a nonprofit group supporting him together paid $95,000 in recent months to [Plaats’s] Family Leader Foundation” – a financial entanglement Plaats described as “definitely true” but “above board” in his discussion with Baier.
Similar claims have been made of the transfer of $21 million to the Friends of Ron DeSantis PAC, which eventually ended up in the hands of Jeff Roe’s Never Back Down PAC, from the Republican Governornor’s Association (RGA).
The RGA is headed by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, who recently endorsed DeSantis despite claiming she would remain neutral and urging other Iowa Republicans to follow suit. Vander Plaats is also close with Reynolds, who he tried to push to run for president, while trashing Trump in an interview from 2021.
Bob Vander Plaat$ admits to receiving nearly $100k from Ron DeSantis and his backers: "It's definitely true!" pic.twitter.com/9xiH71qIXH
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) November 21, 2023
On the primary contest generally, Plaats – himself a thrice-failed candidate for Governor of Iowa – was quizzed by Baier on the fact he previously endorsed Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, and Ted Cruz, and they all lost.
Plaats admitted, “if President Trump wins Iowa, it’s going to be awfully hard to make the case that you can beat President Trump.”
Polls indicate Trump is currently leading DeSantis by a decisive 27 points, while the Floridian tied with Nikki Haley on 17 percent.