Florida governor Ron DeSantis who is running for the Republican presidential nominee was one of the candidates Iowa caucus-goers could vote for Jan. 15. Some voters in the Des Moines area thought DeSantis to be a strong candidate in the race.
Jeff Russell, a resident in the Des Moines area, recognizes that while he does not believe DeSantis will win the caucus in Iowa, he does think he has been running a semi-successful campaign.
“I think it’s hard to sustain that level of momentum when you come out, not as the front runner. I think [Donald] Trump has been the front runner since the beginning, but when you come out as a challenger you take the most arrows,” Russell said. “I don’t think it’s falling apart as people have said it is, but it’s a tough place.”
When asked about what makes DeSantis different from other candidates, Russell spoke highly of his prior experiences.
“I think his record in Florida, the fact that he’s a veteran, the fact that he comes from a pretty middle-class background. That makes him a different candidate,” Russell said.
Another resident, Kimberly Kochel, also thought Ron DeSantis was a strong runner-up behind Trump’s advantage in the polls.
“He’s gonna place second behind Trump,” Kochel said. “I have nothing bad to say about him or his campaign, very respectable.”
While being kept informed on each candidate, she wore two separate stickers of support, one for DeSantis and another for Trump.
“I’ve been following all of their campaigns, and I’m still waiting for everyone to speak, but most likely I will be rooting for Trump,” Kochel said.
Overall, the voters seemed to have guessed correctly, as AP News called Donald Trump the winner of the Iowa Republican causes, leading with 51 percentage points, and DeSantis in a distant second at 21 percentage points.