Sunday marked 50 days to go until Iowa Republicans will gather to make their choice for their party’s 2024 presidential nomination. The Republican Caucus is doubtless an existential contest for both Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, both hoping to keep their long-shot campaigns alive as former President Donald Trump holds a commanding national lead over the primary field. But where, precisely, do the campaigns stand on the metric that matters in Iowa? Caucus commitments.
The Trump campaign told The National Pulse on Monday that it has secured over 50,000 signed voter commitment cards. This is almost double the DeSantis campaign’s number, with the Florida Governor’s campaign boasting just 30,000 signed commitments. In 2016, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) narrowly won the Iowa Republican Caucus with 51,666 votes to Donald Trump’s 45,429.
The metric matters in part due to how different Iowa is to other states in picking their Republican nominee, and how DeSantis strategist Jeff Roe – who led Ted Cruz’s victory in the state – often boasts of his ability to outfox the Trump campaign in the Hawkeye State.
The news comes as newly published data shows DeSantis and his Iowa Governor endorser Kim Reynolds now rank as two of the least popular governors in America.
DeSantis’s own campaign has recently switched to downplaying his Iowa expectations, suggesting instead that a “strong second” is enough to keep him in the race.
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