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Trump Campaign Plans Iowa Blitz in Push to Clinch 2024 GOP Nomination
(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump’s campaign plans to significantly ramp up activity in Iowa during the first two weeks of January, according to people familiar with the matter, a move to ensure the former president delivers a knockout blow in the first Republican nominating contest of 2024.
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Dozens of Trump allies and advisers over the next month will appeal to Hawkeye State caucus-goers at rallies and events, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss the plans. The effort is expected to kick off in the next week, with stops planned in the cities of Council Bluffs, Waukee and Cedar Rapids, and then accelerate in the new year.
Trump supporters hitting the campaign trail in Iowa include Ben Carson, Trump’s former Housing and Urban Development Secretary, Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, who led efforts to oust Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker, and Texas Representative Wesley Hunt.
Trump and his surrogates have scheduled four Iowa events between now and Christmas, and are continuing to plan additional ones before the Jan. 15 caucuses, the people said.
The goal is to make Iowa “Trump central,” in the words of one person briefed on the matter.
While Trump overwhelmingly leads his Republican rivals, the push signals his campaign hopes to win Iowa by a large margin to snuff out any chance of his challengers gaining traction and drawing out the presidential primary beyond Super Tuesday in March.
Even without a primary opponent, Trump’s campaign did something similar in 2020, when more than 80 members of the then-president’s family, Cabinet secretaries, House lawmakers and senior aides — many wearing “Keep Iowa Great” hats — visited the state to pitch Iowans on a second term.
The Trump campaign wants to show voters it is not complacent and will work to earn Iowans’ vote, one official said. If Trump can dominate Iowa, he will maintain momentum and potentially winnow the GOP field before other early contests in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.
More than half of likely Republican caucus-goers picked Trump as their first choice for president, according to a recent Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll. That’s up from 43% in an October survey. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has the endorsement of Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, placed second at 19% and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley earned 16%.
Pollster J. Ann Selzer, who runs the survey, called Trump’s lead “commanding.” Trump’s support is strongest with first-time caucus-goers, 63% of whom support him, Selzer said in an interview.
That’s in contrast to 2016, when his campaign’s presence at the caucuses was lacking, and he lost Iowa to Texas Senator Ted Cruz. Trump skipped a debate before the caucus that year and his campaign did little organizing in the state.
“The Trump campaign appears to have learned that lesson and they are the ones making the pie bigger,” she said.
A Trump campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird told Bloomberg News she would attend as many Trump events as she can in the next month. Bird signed up as a caucus captain, a person who shows up at a caucus site to persuade other caucus-goers to support their candidate. Trump’s campaign has gathered over 50,000 caucus commitment cards, according to Bird.
Matt Whitaker, an Iowa native who served as acting attorney general under Trump, has stumped for the former president at several events and said in an interview he would also participate as much as he can.
“We’re still ironing it out, but he will definitely be in the state a few more times before the caucus,” Iowa Republican State Representative Bobby Kaufmann said of Trump.
--With assistance from Hadriana Lowenkron.
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