DeSantis Put Most Of His Chips On Iowa, Now Faces Do Or Die Test There

The Florida governor’s best polling among the early states was Iowa, and he would likely do even worse in New Hampshire and South Carolina.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — One year after leading the polls for the Republican presidential nomination, Ron DeSantis is just hours away from his moment of truth.

The Florida governor, fresh off his 20-point reelection win, was beating Donald Trump both in the first-in-the-nation voting state as well as in some national polls in early 2023. Today, he heads into Iowa’s caucuses looking at a potential third-place finish behind both the coup-attempting former president as well as former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

Which, after having spent the better part of the last few months traveling back and forth across the state, would raise the question: What’s the point of staying in the race?

“I’m sure they’ll try to find a rationale to stay in but I really don’t see what it would be,” said David Kochel, a decadeslong Republican consultant from Iowa who points out that as weak as DeSantis’ position is in Iowa polling, it’s even worse in the next states to come. “He’s so far back in New Hampshire and South Carolina I can’t imagine he’ll get any attention over those weeks.”

Mike Murphy, a fellow longtime GOP consultant, had a more blunt assessment of a DeSantis third-place finish: “Get a fork. He would be done.”