DeSantis looks to fellow veterans for much-needed Iowa boost

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is betting heavily on his status as a veteran as part of his Iowa-or-fails campaign strategy, making military service a distinguishing factor in a steadily narrowing Republican field. It is advertised that there is.

Mr. DeSantis, the only veteran in the Republican primary field, has focused his Navy service in TV ads and campaign speeches in an effort to win former military votes through the Iowa Veterans Coalition and close the gap. . And former President Trump.

Mr. DeSantis is far behind Mr. Trump in the polls, but whether he can defeat former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley in what appears to be a close race for second place in the Hawkeye State will depend on how long he lasts. It may depend on whether he remains in the election race.

“He needs a boost in one of the early states to stay in office,” one Republican strategist told The Hill, adding that DeSantis has spent relatively little time campaigning and is trailing in the polls. He said that was unlikely to happen in New Hampshire, where Ms. Haley has a large lead.

“If I put all my chips on the line in Iowa and don’t come in second place by a close margin, it’s game over.”

DeSantis' military record stands in sharp contrast to former President Trump, who was accused of dodging the draft when he was younger and reportedly called American soldiers killed in combat “losers.”

But the strategist was skeptical that any changes would occur on Monday. According to the Iowa Hill/Decision Desk poll average, Trump leads with 54.4% support, followed by Haley with 17.4% and DeSantis with 15.9%.

“Veterans who like President Trump at this point already know that he has made some problematic comments about wounded soldiers and prisoners of war,” the strategist said. “They are completely baked in at this point and will continue to support him no matter what.”

If DeSantis doesn't do well at Iowa State, it won't be for lack of trying.

The Florida governor is holding a dizzying series of campaign events in Iowa ahead of the state's Jan. 15 caucuses, visiting all 99 counties in the state since launching his campaign in May. I often brag about what I do.

And while on the campaign trail, he often turned to military service — telling voters he felt called to join the Navy after 9/11. He later served as a Navy attorney at Guantanamo Bay Detention Base in Cuba, and was deployed to Iraq after graduating from Harvard Law School.

The DeSantis campaign has struggled to gain support for Trump and has repeatedly revised its strategy as it steadily loses ground to Haley. The campaign said it would seek to promote his biography as part of an effort to change the course of the summer.

In a memo sent to donors in July, his campaign said that “when voters hear about the governor's background, primarily as a father and veteran, they like him and want to hear more.” He said he understood. According to a report from NBC News.

This fall, Mr. DeSantis announced his veterans policy agenda. The plan focuses on circumventing the current bureaucracy around government services, modernizing veteran systems and infrastructure, and combating veteran suicide and homelessness.

And his Iowa Veterans Coalition, launched in mid-October, includes chairman and influential Iowa Rep. Matt Windschitl, himself a former Marine.

“Governor. Mr. DeSantis answered the call to military service at a time when our country needed him,” Windschitl was quoted as saying in a statement at the time. des moines register. “Right now, America needs a leader who can make a difference, and Ron DeSantis, who has proudly flown our flag on the battlefield, is the right person to not only lead our country to prosperity at the right time, but also to lead the free world. I'm sure he's a good person.'' Good. ”

A campaign spokesperson told The Hill that the coalition now has more than 1,400 supporters after an intense courtship campaign on the campaign trail.

DeSantis “worked with members of local and national groups to recruit them to join the Veterans of Foreign Wars,” a spokesperson said, while making stops at organizations such as the American Veterans Association and the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States. Stated.

In addition, the campaign includes several former U.S. government officials who have endorsed DeSantis, including retired Army Maj. Gen. Dennis Keneally, former head of the California Army National Guard, and former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine. It is said that there is.

By contrast, President Trump has repeatedly shown contempt for those captured as martyrs and prisoners of war (POWs).

In July 2015, then-presidential candidate Trump said that the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who spent five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, was “not a war hero.”

“He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren't captured,” Trump said.

Later, during his presidency, Trump questioned U.S. military intelligence, requested that wounded veterans be excluded from military parades, and canceled a scheduled visit to a military cemetery in France.

When President Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Military Cemetery near Paris in 2018, he reportedly thought it was not important to honor Americans who died in combat.

'Why should I go to that cemetery?' It's full of losers,'' Trump told executives on the morning of his scheduled visit. According to a report in The Atlantic.

According to reports after President Trump left office, new yorker The former commander-in-chief detailed how he wanted to hold a large military parade in Washington, D.C., on Independence Day, minus disabled veterans.

President Trump reportedly told his country's generals, “We don't want our wounded soldiers in the parade.” “This doesn't look good to me.”

That doesn't seem to have changed for most Republican voters.

“Mr. Trump is the overwhelming favorite to win the caucuses, and the only way Mr. DeSantis can get close to that is by trying to wrest certain constituencies away from Mr. Trump and bring them into his camp,” the strategist said. ” he said.

“If the polls are any indication heading into caucus day, he won't have enough votes to get the ticket out of Iowa after this.”

During CNN's Republican presidential primary debate in Iowa on January 10, the Florida governor briefly mentioned his military veteran status and criticized him for being too rash in his response to Iranian proxy attacks in the Middle East. He emphasized the contrast with President Biden. .

“I'm the only candidate running for president who served in the military. I was deployed to Iraq in 2007 or 2008, so I'm very familiar with what our military is going through. “I understand that Biden will never put our troops at risk without protecting them with all our might, as Biden is doing in the Middle East,” DeSantis said.