DAVENPORT, Iowa – To outsiders, they looked like stacks of paper. But for Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign, they represented a missed opportunity.
A month before the Iowa presidential caucuses in 2016, mountains of so-called promise cards were placed in the corner of the state headquarters of Des Moines, a suburb of Trump. releasing letters suggesting they were open to supporting the truth TV star now seeking the White House.
In what is political malpractice by Iowa standards, those who returned the cards did not gain any follow-up contact from the crusade.
“None of this knowledge has been used. None of that written,” said Alex Latcham, former political director of the Iowa Republican Party and now Trump’s state director of early voting. “And those other people were not encouraged or mobilized in the caucus. “
When Trump returned to Iowa on Monday, he and his team were looking for a more disciplined approach, focused on connecting with the electorate at a more private point while creating the knowledge and virtual engagement he will want to convince Iowans to get online. No bloodshed and early snow. next year to participate in the caucuses.
He stepped up his attacks on his main Republican rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
From the level of a packed theater in downtown Davenport, Trump compared DeSantis to Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, a common punching bag for the Make America Great Again movement. Trump also accused DeSantis of voting against Medicare and Social Security while he was a congressman, calling him “a disciple of Paul Ryan, who is a RINO loser. “The acronym stands for “Republican by call only. “
A spokesman for DeSantis did not respond to a request for comment.
At the same time, Trump seeks to assign maximum trust. He downplayed his political defiance before his speech while speaking to reporters when asked how aggressive he would have to work to win the state in 2024.
“I don’t think he deserves to be too aggressive,” Trump said. We did a smart job for the farmers. No president has ever done more for farmers than I have.
In the first of the 2024 campaign, Trump remains in a dominant position. But he faces notable challenges, adding to a growing interest in the highly anticipated candidacy of DeSantis, who made his Iowa debut last week.
Trump remains hugely popular among Iowa Republicans, even though criticism of the former president has waned since leaving the White House. Now, 80% say they have a favorable Trump score, down slightly from 91% in September 2021. according to a Des Moines Register/Mediacom ballot released Friday.
The ballot found that DeSantis also receives positive reviews from Iowa Republicans, with 74% saying they have a favorable rating. In particular, DeSantis enjoys maximum notoriety in a state more than 1,000 miles from his own; Only 20% say they do not know how to compare it.
Meanwhile, the legal scrutiny surrounding Trump is also intensifying with potential indictments in the coming weeks that would make him the first former president in U. S. history. U. S. citizens face scammer charges. He was invited to testify this week before a New York grand jury that investigated silent bills. made in his name during the 2016 campaign, a resolution indicating that a resolution on impeachment is near.
He told reporters Monday that he wasn’t sure whether or not to testify.
“I don’t know. It’s a big witch hunt. It is run by Democrats, radical left-wing democrats. It is a disgrace. It ended years ago. Nothing happened. But it’s a way for them to check to win elections, it’s a shame.
Elsewhere, the Atlanta district attorney said decisions were “imminent” in a two-year investigation into imaginable illegal interference in the 2020 election through Trump and his allies. A special tip from the Justice Department is also investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the election. as well as handling classified documents in your Florida estate.
The dynamic makes the stakes high for Trump in Iowa. As a former president who boasts of his position in the smartest part of the Republican Party, he can’t even a small defeat in the race that kicks off the nomination process.
And even the most complicated knowledge and virtual operations may not be enough to satisfy some Iowans who are used to having intimate conversations with those in the White House. Iowa Republican activists say Trump would do well to host smaller events, adding with local influencers. Republican leaders.
Trump did a few things by running to Iowa voters.
Before his speech, Trump stopped by the Machine Shed restaurant, posing for photos with unsuspecting diners and chatting with bartenders. The former president recently faithful to that “politics of details” in past campaigns.
And after discussing his record in a self-proclaimed school policy speech that lightly discussed schooling for more than an hour in a packed Davenport theater, he answered several impromptu questions from the electorate, standard practice for classic presidential candidates in states like Iowa. and New Hampshire. But something the former president rarely did.
Trump’s crusade said it collected about 8,000 names, addresses and emails of potential supporters related to Monday’s event. Prior to the speech, the crusade also presented a list of endorsements from elected officials in eastern Iowa, adding state officials and state senators.
When he began his crusade in Iowa 8 years ago, Trump didn’t even know what a caucus was. The original races — more than 1,000 simultaneous local political meetings sponsored by the state Republican Party and led by volunteers — are not the number one ones sanctioned by the state. elections and require intense organization to have supporters in position in place.
While Trump’s celebrity drew crowds of several thousand people to his rallies across the state, there was almost no follow-up with interested supporters. Many Trump supporters first ran for the caucus and were unfamiliar with the process. for mistakenly going to their regular polling station, rather than to the designated party’s caucus site.
The purpose of a more accurate technique for Iowa reflects broader changes in the way Trump structured his last campaign. While his 2016 bid was a disjointed start-up bid, with a national headquarters in an unfinished ad area at Trump Tower in New York City, his campaign moment, as president seeking re-election, a sprawling giant outside a shiny Virginia work tower.
The two were riven by rivalries as Trump wandered among the employees.
This time, Trump chose a middle-floor technique and moved away from the classical hierarchy. Instead of a crusade manager, he handed over longtime adviser Florida agent Susie Wiles to run his Florida-based operation, which he joined through LaCivita and the former White. The political director of the House, Brian Jack.
The crusade temporarily added and temporarily overran their offices.
Iowa’s electorate is just beginning to see those adjustments up close. And some of the state’s most sensible Republican officials are undecided.
Gov. Kim Reynolds attended a personal donor summit with DeSantis in Florida that expired last month. She brought DeSantis to his in-state appearance last week. On Monday, he brought Trump in.
Asked if he had Reynolds’ endorsement in 2024, Trump replied, “I guess I supported her. “
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Associated Press editors Jill Colvin in New York and Hannah Fingerhut in Washington contributed to this report.