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DES MOINES (Iowa), April 30 (AP) — The rivalry between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis is intensifying as the former president plans to move into the state after Florida’s governor Returning to Iowa on the same day kicked off the prelude to the Republican White House.
Trump campaign officials said Saturday that the former president plans to travel to Iowa on May 13 to star at an organizing rally at a sprawling park in downtown Des Moines.
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By then, DeSantis had been scheduled to headline Iowa Rep. Randy Feenstra’s annual summer fundraiser in Northwest Iowa, and later in the evening Speaking at a party fundraiser in Cedar Rapids.
The Trump campaign official, who requested anonymity to discuss the trip, said the Des Moines rally had been in the planning stages for weeks to identify caucus supporters and volunteers.
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The move signals an escalating rivalry between the two, who, at least for now, are the leading contenders for the Republican presidential nomination.
Trump and his allies are increasingly emboldened to attack and sideline DeSantis, who is expected to be announced for the White House sometime after the Florida legislature wraps up next week.
But Trump’s trip was also notable for its emphasis on the type of grassroots organizing that is crucial in Iowa politics, and during his 2016 campaign, when Texas Sen. Ted Cruz overtook him and won This type of organization is often overlooked in the state’s Republican caucuses.
Trump has focused almost exclusively on attacking DeSantis for his policy positions on entitlement reform, his allegiance to conservative causes and even his character.
While DeSantis largely ignored Trump’s attacks, Never Back Down, a pro-DeSantis super PAC, began responding in paid ads this month.
Meanwhile, the super PAC promoting DeSantis is hiring Iowa staff to begin organizing support for the governor ahead of his entry into the race.
The stakes are particularly high for both in Iowa, where the February caucuses offer them a chance to cement their positions in the Republican Party. A poor showing, however, would give other Republicans a chance to launch an upstart campaign.
Trump’s 2016 campaign in Iowa was a guts move, run by campaign rookies, including this candidate, who had no idea what a caucus was.
The roughly 1,700 district-level Republican political meetings are a vestige of prairie civic life that includes questions of presidential preference but requires in-person participation on often cold winter nights.
Eight years ago, Trump’s Iowa team left the contact information of about 10,000 Iowans interested in supporting him, but it went unprocessed until the caucuses, in which Trump leads in the primary polls, But it failed to match Cruz’s more organized campaign.
Trump advisers say they have not only well-established 2016 caucus data but also information gleaned during two national campaigns and are developing a data and digital engagement strategy they believe will position him to win core group.
Iowa GOP strategists say that’s an absolutely necessary expectation for the former president, who won Iowa handily in the 2016 and 2020 elections.
Meanwhile, Never Back Down, run by Phil Cox, a senior strategist for DeSantis’ 2022 Florida re-election campaign, has added Iowa GOP operatives to its roster as Iowa The state’s 2024 campaign is underway, as it tries to reach interested Republican activists. Among them was Ryan Koopmans, former chief of staff to Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.
The group has been running TV ads in Iowa and other early voting states, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada for weeks, and plans to launch a new ad on Monday. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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