Ron DeSantis’ first experience at the Iowa State Fair has been anything but “Midwestern nice.”
For the second day in a row, the Florida governor was the only Republican at the event, which is hallowed political territory for any presidential candidate, interrupted by protesters imploring him to return to the Sunshine State.
DeSantis' latest clash with the small group of demonstrators — who say they were there to protest his policies on a range of issues, including abortion and education — was on Saturday morning during his one-on-one interview with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.
The protesters used a cowbell and whistles to disrupt DeSantis, who has a close relationship with Reynolds and said he would consider her as a running mate. Two of DeSantis' rivals for the GOP nomination, Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley, were also interviewed by Reynolds, ahead of DeSantis, and neither faced any vocal opposition from the audience.
“Hey, you know what, you know what? We’re in Iowa,” Reynolds told the protesters. “And in Iowa, we’re Iowa nice. So, let’s give everybody the opportunity to hear our candidates.”
After the incident, DeSantis called the protesters "radical leftists." "Well, look, I think when the left comes out that’s a sign of strength because like, they know that we will beat [Joe] Biden and they know we will be able to turn this country around and they do not want that," he told reporters.
It was the second day in a row that DeSantis was heckled by the apparent left-leaning group. On Friday, the protesters greeted DeSantis at the fair using a megaphone through which they chanted “Ron DeFascist” and “pudding fingers,” referring to a Daily Beast story that reported DeSantis ate a cup of pudding with his bare hands.
"We’re Iowa nice by nature," one of the protesters, Heather Ryan, told NBC News on Friday. "That’s what we’re known for. But I’m tired of being nice. I’m tired of getting trampled on for our rights ... people like Ron DeSantis ... I mean, women’s rights are, like, so unimportant to him that I almost don’t even have to say that he’s taking them away because you already know that." NBC News was unable to contact Ryan following Saturday's protest as she had been apprehended by authorities.
Reynolds' "fair-side" chats with the GOP contenders have been friendly and formulaic, allowing each candidate to field a series of softball questions in front of grassroots Iowa Republicans who are set to play an outsize role in the GOP nominating contest. Most of her questions have steered away from any hint of controversy, including front-runner Donald Trump’s indictments.
During his chat with Reynolds on Saturday, DeSantis reiterated his long-standing talking points, from Florida’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic to parental rights in education.
He also spoke about how he navigates having three small children on the campaign trail, as a plane flew overhead carrying a banner that read “Be likable, Ron!” — a reference to leaked video from debate preparation during his 2018 gubernatorial campaign where Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Republican who was a significant DeSantis adviser but now a Trump supporter, told DeSantis to “be likable.”
Trump has maintained significant double digit leads in most public polling, with DeSantis coming in second place. The Florida governor has spent nearly all of his time in recent weeks traveling around Iowa, the first state on the GOP presidential nominating calendar, because his campaign sees it as a make or break for his chances at challenging Trump.
Meanwhile, the former president's primary dominance was on full display when he flew over the fairgrounds in his Trump-branded private jet just hours after Reynolds interviewed Haley, Ramaswamy and DeSantis. He held his own event, which did not include Reynolds, that drew larger crowds than those seen by other candidates at the event.
DeSantis briefly met with reporters after Trump arrived on the scene, and acknowledged he had work to do to try to overcome the former president’s obvious hold on the GOP base in Iowa and the rest of the nation.
Asked by reporters how he aims to close the gap with Trump, DeSantis said, “You work hard. We’ve now done 38 of the 99 counties. We did six counties yesterday. They did six counties with us and had fun.”
Trump’s arrival in Iowa also included several members of the Florida congressional delegation who were endorsing him over their own governor. Some of them posted on social media before leaving for the event that they would be traveling with Trump on his plane, a perceived slight at DeSantis, who has only one Florida congressional endorsement.
DeSantis tried to counter the maneuver by bringing several elected Iowa Republicans who have endorsed his campaign.
“I had a big delegation from Iowa with us that were helping us out,” DeSantis told reporters when asked about the Florida lawmakers traveling with Trump. “And I think the reason is because the Iowa legislators, the governor, they’ve had a lot of success, and they’ve also seen how Florida had a lot of success. And that’s just good leadership.”
