CLIVE, Iowa — Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) touted his record as an anti-woke governor and dinged first son Hunter Biden during his first in-person event as a presidential candidate in the early voting state of Iowa.
"It is great for me to report that our 'Great American Comeback' starts by sending Joe Biden back to his basement in Delaware," DeSantis told the Clive crowd Tuesday.
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DeSantis, who declared his candidacy for the 2024 Republican nomination last week, delivered a red-meat address covering abortion access to China, receiving multiple standing ovations for his opposition to so-called indoctrination instead of education in Florida's schools.
One of DeSantis's loudest applause lines was for his criticism of "an unaccountable, weaponized administrative state that unevenly wields authority, depending on its targets."
"Two different sets of rules, depending on whether you're a member in good standing of elite society or not," he said. "If Hunter [Biden] were Republican, he would have been in jail years ago."
Other memorable moments included DeSantis, a Yale University and Harvard Law School-educated Navy veteran, speaking about his decision to enlist over a more lucrative career and when he invited wife Casey to talk to the audience.
DeSantis has created interest in Iowa, reflected by the parking lot for his launch event being full more than an hour before it was set to start. Extra parking spaces were spray-painted on an adjacent field, undercutting the campaign's reputation for disorganization, though an aide later confirmed that was done by Eternity Church, the governor's host. Roughly 1,000 people were estimated to be in the auditorium, with two overflow rooms nearby.
Cheers could be heard around the room when the lights went down, the crowd expecting Gov. Kim Reynolds (R-IA) to introduce DeSantis, but another aide quickly turned them back on, signaling the campaign was running slightly behind schedule. When she did step into the spotlight, Reynolds amplified DeSantis as a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus and his wife's work as first lady.
"Here he is to kick off his campaign, his first stop as a candidate for the president, president of the United States of America," Reynolds said to delayed claps.
Iowa is central to DeSantis's strategy to break former President Donald Trump's stranglehold on the 2024 Republican nomination, particularly members of the state's evangelical community who have had to overlook their concerns with Trump. That strategy was underscored Tuesday by DeSantis choosing Eternity Church, a Des Moines suburbs megachurch, for his first event. Beforehand, DeSantis also met with 15 local pastors, who prayed over the governor and his wife.
DeSantis campaign spokesman Andrew Romeo previewed Tuesday how the governor’s four-day, 12-city tour of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina this week will introduce the public to his vision for America after describing the country as being in "decline" and in need of a "Great American Comeback" in his announcement video. Romeo additionally said Tuesday that DeSantis will return to Iowa on Saturday for Sen. Joni Ernst’s (R-IA) annual Roast and Ride fundraiser.
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“Iowa is very important,” DeSantis told Fox News this week. “We obviously have a lot in common with Iowa in terms of what Florida has done and what they've done under Gov. Kim Reynolds. And I think the groundswell of support has been really, really strong. We're going to press the case.”
Trump has a 31 percentage point advantage on DeSantis, 53% to 22%, 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.