SALIX, Iowa — Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and Florida first lady Casey DeSantis sought to bond with Iowa Republicans over the challenges of raising young children, promising to bring them on the campaign trail as the governor contends with criticism he is not a personable politician.
"We're going to bring them because, honestly, it's so tough," Casey DeSantis said Wednesday during a conversation between the first couple in Salix, Iowa. "You can't get these years back, right? I mean, these are those fundamental years."
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The pair also spoke about their record in Florida working for less fortunate families, from education to drug addiction, complementing the governor's earlier prepared remarks to a crowd of roughly
"We have to make sure that truth is the foundation of everything we do," he said during a shorter version of his stump speech to applause. "There is a truth. It's not my truth or your truth. It's the truth."
DeSantis campaign spokesman Andrew Romeo previewed how the governor’s four-day, 12-city tour through the early-voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina will introduce his vision for America to the public after describing the country as being in "decline" and in need of a "Great American Comeback" in his announcement video last week. The campaign also announced Tuesday that DeSantis will return to Iowa on Saturday for Sen. Joni Ernst’s (R-IA) annual "Roast and Ride" fundraiser, to which the couple said Wednesday they would bring their two eldest children, leaving the youngest at home.
"I wish the elites in Washington, D.C., would take a page out of the Iowa playbook, but instead, they have ignored what works and they continue to plunge this nation into the abyss," the governor said Tuesday during his in-person campaign launch in Clive, Iowa. "These elites are not enacting an agenda to represent us. They are imposing their agenda on us via the federal government, via corporate America, and via our own education system, all for their benefit and all to our detriment."
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"My job as a leader is to put the interests and the jobs of the people I represent ahead of protecting my own political hide," he added. "We had some tough going politically for a while, we were getting hammered, and lo and behold, when you do the right thing, regardless of polls or regardless of wherever the wind's blowing, people appreciate you. They know when you stood up for them when it's not easy and you do it, that's when they go to war for you."
Former President Donald Trump has an average advantage of 31 percentage points over DeSantis, according to RealClearPolitics's aggregation of very early primary polls, though the governor raised a record $8.2 million on the first day of his campaign.