In the wake of his distant second-place finish in Iowa, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is skipping the New Hampshire Primary to focus his campaign’s efforts on South Carolina. According to reports, DeSantis will appear at campaign events in South Carolina this weekend and is moving most of his New Hampshire staff to the Palmetto State.
DeSantis’s focus on South Carolina and his decision to effectively abandon the New Hampshire Primary is at odds with the image the GOP presidential candidate presented during his efforts to win Iowa. “No candidate has worked harder to earn your vote,” he said just days before the Iowa caucuses. “I will brave whatever is thrown at me — nothing is handed to you in life,” DeSantis posted on X (formerly Twitter). “If we have to trudge through snow to earn the vote, we’ll trudge through snow!”
Social media accounts supporting the Florida Governor’s campaign echoed a similar sentiment. “This right here is why DeSantis deserves your respect and vote, nobody has worked harder to earn it!” wrote one supporter on X in response to a story about Casey DeSantis door knocking in Iowa. “DeSantis will earn the vote no matter the cost,” wrote another.
Despite DeSantis’s extensive ground campaign and extraordinary expenditure in Iowa, the Florida governor only managed to win 21 percent of the Iowa caucus vote, far behind first-place finisher Donald Trump.