Des Moines, Iowa – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is making an audible call.
Rather than heading directly to New Hampshire after Monday's Iowa caucuses (the traditional route for White House candidates), the Republican presidential candidate will stop in his home state of South Carolina to target rival Nikki Haley. The plan is to
The DeSantis campaign announced Friday that the governor would leave Iowa after a caucus night party and head to Greenville, South Carolina, to hold a Tuesday morning rally in the state's deeply conservative northwest region.
DeSantis later told Fox News he would be heading to New Hampshire later that day. New Hampshire will hold its first primary and second general election on the Republican nomination calendar on January 23, eight days after the Iowa caucuses.
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Republican presidential candidate and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks to the crowd at a Northside Conservative Club event in Ankeny, Iowa, January 12, 2024. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
South Carolina, another key early voting state, will hold its first Southern primary on a Republican date on February 24th.
According to the latest Iowa polls, DeSantis and Haley are vying for a distant second place behind former President Donald Trump, who is seeking a third consecutive White House bid. Former President Trump remains the strong front-runner.
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Haley, who has moved up the rankings in recent months, now holds the second place and is closing the gap with Trump in New Hampshire. DeSantis scored in the single digits in the Granite State's latest poll.
2024 Republican presidential candidate, former ambassador to the United Nations, and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley (center) poses for a photo with supporters and other Iowa voters at a campaign event in Ankeny, Iowa, on January 11, 2024. Take a photo. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
The latest polls in South Carolina show Trump with a very scary double-digit lead over Haley, with DeSantis in third place by a single-digit margin.
But DeSantis emphasized her support for Haley in her home state in an interview Friday night on Fox News' “The Ingraham Angle.”
“If you look at South Carolina, I think the message is simple: Nikki Haley was governor of that state. “I'm getting it,” he said.
And DeSantis insisted that Haley “is really out of step with South Carolina. We're going to show that with our support.”
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Andrew Romeo, DeSantis' campaign communications director, told Fox News that Tuesday's stop in South Carolina meant “this campaign is built for the long run. We can win in New Hampshire, Nevada. We intend to compete to win all the delegates we need,” he said in a statement. On to South Carolina and March. ”
The Florida governor, who won convincing re-election 14 months ago, has spent much of his White House campaign betting on a strong showing in Iowa.
However, there is speculation that he may suspend campaigning if he finishes third in Iowa.
“We're going to New Hampshire, yes,” DeSantis reiterated in an interview on FOX Digital on Friday, when asked if he was heading to New Hampshire regardless of how he performs in Iowa.
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Trump remains popular in South Carolina, a reliably red state. He has the support of Gov. Henry McMaster, senior senator Lindsey Graham, and several members of Congress.
Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina ended his presidential campaign in November, but remains neutral in the race for the Republican nomination.
Get the latest on the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more with Fox News Digital's Election Hub.
