In a pivotal development for the 2024 Republican presidential race, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis secured a crucial endorsement on Tuesday from influential Iowa evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats. This endorsement provides a much-needed boost for DeSantis, who has been grappling to gain momentum in the run-up to the Republican nominating contests slated for early next year.
Despite former President Donald Trump being the overwhelming frontrunner for the Republican nomination and Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucus merely two months away, the impact of Vander Plaats’ endorsement on DeSantis’ candidacy remains uncertain.
“We need to find someone who can win in 2024,” stated Vander Plaats in an exclusive interview on Fox News. He explicitly conveyed his belief that Trump would not be re-elected.
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The Republican nominee emerging from the nominating contests will face President Joe Biden, a Democrat, in the general election scheduled for November 2024.
DeSantis actively courted Vander Plaats, the president, and CEO of the Christian advocacy group, the Family Leader, in recent months. He strategically participated in various faith-based forums, concurrently advocating for stringent abortion limits in a vigorous push for a robust performance in Iowa, where caucuses are scheduled for January 15.
In an exclusive report by Reuters in August, it was revealed that the DeSantis campaign, a super PAC associated with him, and a supporting nonprofit group collectively paid $95,000 in recent months to Vander Plaats’ organization, the Family Leader.
Expressing the significance of Vander Plaats’ support, DeSantis asserted, “His support tells Iowans they can trust me to fight and win for them,” during an appearance on X.
Vander Plaats emphasized that a victory by DeSantis in Iowa would fundamentally reshape the entire presidential race. “If President Trump wins Iowa here, I think it’s going to be awfully hard to make the case that you can beat President Trump. And he’s going to be your eventual nominee,” he remarked. “I think America is well served to have a choice.”
Despite recent polls indicating Trump’s 30-percentage-point lead over DeSantis and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley in Iowa, historical trends reveal that candidates endorsed by Vander Plaats and other prominent evangelicals have overcome polling deficits in the last three caucuses held in 2016, 2012, and 2008.
In 2016, for instance, Trump, despite leading in polls, lost to U.S. Senator Ted Cruz 28% to 24% after receiving Vander Plaats’ endorsement.
Regarding the $95,000 paid to Vander Plaats’ organization, DeSantis and supporting groups obtained three pages of advertisements in a booklet distributed at a July forum attended by 2,000 Christian conservatives. The payment also included tickets to the summit, lunch, and an after-dinner event. Vander Plaats, in the interview, vehemently denied any connection between the funds and his support.
In response to the endorsement, the Trump campaign dispatched a memo from Trump’s pollster, Tony Fabrizio, asserting that Vander Plaats is not well-known enough by the Iowa electorate for the endorsement to have a significant impact.
DeSantis, bolstered by the recent endorsement from Iowa’s governor, Kim Reynolds, has intensified his campaign efforts by visiting nearly every county in the state. Concurrently, he has escalated his criticism of Trump while also fending off the rising popularity of Nikki Haley in recent polls.
