Among the Never Pencers and the Only Trumpers
Timothy P. Carney
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COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA — “I would absolutely not support Pence” if he were the Republican nominee, said Julie Fredrickson, a Republican politician from Nebraska.
While most of the Donald Trump supporters I spoke with would back any eventual Republican nominee, a sizable minority ruled out ever voting for former Vice President Mike Pence, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), or both in a way reminiscent of the “Never Trump” minority of conservatives in 2016.
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Ray Owens of Council Bluffs said he would never support either Pence or DeSantis in the general election. “No. No way I would.” Why not? “DeSantis is a backstabber. Look what Donald Trump did for DeSantis and for him to backstab him the way he’s been doing. Just like Pence. Pence ran away with his diapers on, for Pete’s sakes, when Trump was in trouble.”
Owens was talking about Jan. 6, 2021, when Pence refused Trump’s command to reject the electoral votes from states where Trump was denying he lost.
Fredrickson, who ran for state legislature in Nebraska last year, gave the same reason for rejecting Pence out of hand. “I was in D.C. on January 6, and he stood with his brothers who are all Masons — Freemasons.”
“I won’t vote for him,” Carl King of Bennington, Nebraska, said of Pence.
“I don’t think he was right. I don’t like him,” King said. “I don’t think he was being honest. 2020: I don’t think he handled that right, and there was lies told. He actually did have the power to stop that. … I’m not saying that anybody cheated, but they could go back and look. … He had that power. And now he’s out there talking smack.”
King also said he probably could never support DeSantis, either.
Shelly Carlson of Council Bluffs is a die-hard Trump supporter. When I asked her what she thinks of other Republicans, she replied, “You know what? I don’t, really. I haven’t done much research at all. We’ve been Trump voters from the get-go.”
With these impressionable supporters in mind, Trump works hard at every occasion to paint DeSantis as a villain. In his speech in Council Bluffs on Friday, Trump rolled out his nickname “DeSanctimonious” and referred to DeSantis intentionally as “DeSanctis,” which he says is the abbreviation of the longer nickname.
Trump lays on thick the case that he saved DeSantis in the 2018 gubernatorial primary and general election. “Ron was losing badly,” Trump said of the primary contest. “And I said, let’s give it a shot, Ron. I don’t know if he can make this. This is a big one. He was so far behind because you know why? ‘Cause he was a lousy candidate.”
Trump went after DeSantis repeatedly and at length. “He would be a total disaster,” Trump said. “He’s got no personality. He would be a catastrophe for the farmers of Nebraska, Iowa, and everyplace else.”
Trump also called DeSantis “a globalist sellout … in the pocket of Wall Street donors.”
He added, “Ron DeSanctis totally despises Iowa.”
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Haley, a woman from Kansas in her 30s, sees Trump’s attacks and the effects it’s happening, and it’s one reason she supports Trump over his top rivals. She thinks Trump’s attacks on DeSantis make him less electable, leaving Trump as the smart GOP pick.
“Trump has his main base of voters who are going to vote for him,” Haley said. “Since there’s been some infighting with Republicans attacking DeSantis,” she said, obliquely referring to attacks by Trump and his proxies, she expects many GOP voters to stay home in November if DeSantis were to get the nomination.