DeSantis hopes this GOP evangelical leader can give him a 'come-from-behind victory' in Iowa: report

On Thursday, July 13, Politico's Sally Goldenberg reported that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had a game plan for turning around his weak poll numbers in the 2024 GOP presidential primary: courting the Religious Right in Iowa. DeSantis, according to Goldenberg, believes he can move ahead of primary frontrunner Donald Trump if he wins over enough Christian fundamentalist evangelicals in that state between now and its Republican presidential primary early next year.

According to Washington Post reporters Marianne LeVine, Hannah Knowles and Josh Dawsey, an Iowa-based Republican evangelical pastor who may be able to help DeSantis accomplish that is Bob Vander Plaats.

"Vander Plaats, a Christian conservative leader and household name in Iowa Republican politics, has showered DeSantis with praise in interviews and on social media," the Post journalists note in an article published on July 14. "Last fall, he declared DeSantis the midterms' 'HUGE winner' and former President Donald Trump the 'HUGE loser.' More recently, he promoted polling showing DeSantis beating President Biden, praised Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis' new campaign initiative focused on moms and criticized Trump's campaign choices, including his attacks on Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds."

READ MORE: DeSantis' flailing campaign courts evangelicals as pastor says congregation is 'split' between him and Trump

In July, polls have not been looking good for DeSantis. Morning Consult found Trump with a 39 percent lead over the Florida governor, and an Economist/YouGov poll showed DeSantis trailing the former president by 26 percent. Those polls followed a Fox News poll that, in late June, showed Trump ahead by 34 percent.

But DeSantis, according to LeVine, Knowles and Dawsey, is "focusing heavily on Iowa, where allies hope a come-from-behind victory would create momentum and break Trump's grip on GOP voters if the former president maintains his lead in the national polls."

Vander Plaats told the Post, "My guess is, especially in the Trump world, they're probably thinking that I'm not going to endorse the former president. And I'm not saying I've ruled that out, but I would say that'd be a strong likelihood or a strong leaning that I probably would not endorse the former president. And DeSantis looks like a frontrunner right now to be the alternative to Trump. So, that may be why they're saying that."

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Read the Washington Post's full report at this link (subscription required).