SERGEANT BLUFF, Iowa — Don and Peggy Eggerling were just about the first folks at Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) rally at Pub 52 in this small town neighboring Sioux City, Iowa. They are wearing DeSantis hats and have grabbed DeSantis signs.
But when I ask about the man expected to defeat DeSantis in the Iowa caucuses, and the man who spends much of his time attacking DeSantis personally and politically, the Eggerlings have mostly praise.
“I think he was awesome his first term,” Don says of former President Donald Trump.
“Especially given the adversity he had to work with,” Peggy adds. “Everybody was against him” — the press, the Democrats, the Deep State, and “even the Republicans.”
So if they think Trump was awesome and got shortchanged, why are they 100% for DeSantis?
“Because of the baggage,” Ron says simply. “Because nobody gets the Democrats out to vote more than Trump. They’re not gonna vote for Biden. They’re not gonna vote for any of his horrible policies. But they are gonna come out and say, ‘We don’t like Trump.’ So I love Trump. I think he was great. DeSantis is Trump without all the baggage.”
This is the typical answer from DeSantis supporters in Iowa. These are mostly conservative Republicans who saw Trump’s first term as a success but who think that Trump’s “baggage,” his tendency to shoot his mouth off and to pick fights and his low public approval ratings, will interfere with his ability to defeat Joe Biden or to advance a conservative agenda in a second term.
“If he got rid of Twitter, it would have been a lot better four years in my mind,” says Michael Perez at the DeSantis rally. Perez is undecided between DeSantis and Trump.
Cory and Holly Corcoran showed up at Pub 52 to decide between DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. What do they like about those two? “Just the fact that they’re conservatives, they have a track record of being conservative, and there’s no drama around them.”
Drama, like baggage, is a term Iowans constantly use to describe Trump. “I like his policies,” Cory said of Trump. “I liked them a lot. I just wish there wasn’t so much drama. We need to focus on the issues and not lawsuits.”
“I voted for him his first two runs. I was not disappointed,” says Mike Kuckta in Council Bluffs. “I just wish he would not attack everybody for all the little things that people say. It’s just kind of embarrassing.”
Some of the blame for the drama and baggage falls to Trump and his lack of self-control. Some of the blame falls to Trump’s critics in the media and politics. But either way, these DeSantis-leaners and supporters think that conservatives need to shed the baggage.
“To the extent those things are fully, or mostly, or partially unfair, doesn’t matter,” says Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), now a chief DeSantis supporter. Baggage is baggage.
Trump “was the man for 2016,” Roy says. “He was the man to shine a spotlight on the swamp.”
“I think Trump did a great job — if [he’d] just keep his mouth shut,” says Heather Seibold at Pub 52. “I don’t dislike Trump. But Ron DeSantis is a veteran who served our country.”
Gary is a retired school teacher who now lives in northwest Iowa who came to Pub 52 undecided between Trump and DeSantis. About DeSantis he says, “I like his personality and the way he comes across.” This is a clear contrast with Trump. “Trump got too vocal and I think his personality — everybody’s kinda gotten tired of it.”
I ask Gary, “Have you gotten tired of it?”
No, “but I don’t think he can get a lot of the voters back that he had. I don’t think he’s electable.”
Other former Trump supporters say that his COVID response soured them on him.
“When the madness started in 2020, he did a lot of wrong,” says Richard Buman of Trump. “He was for lockdown — says now he wasn’t. He was.” Buman also dislikes the COVID vaccine Trump rushed to market. He adds of Trump, “He was so pro-life and now he’s like, ‘Hey, you know, we got to kind of got to temper that.’ I think that’s wrong.”
For those with a harsher critique of Trump, the COVID response is central. Hans Rudin, a DeSantis precinct captain in Council Bluffs, gave me his anti-Trump spiel: “I would just ask [a Trump supporter] sincere questions. Do you want to be locked down again? Do you want to increase the debt more than had happened for the 250 years of American history? Do you want your kids to be masked again? Do you want to have experimental shots thrown out on the marketplace? If you want to go through all that again, then go ahead and vote for Trump again because he’ll do that and he’ll do more.”
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Ron Romine, a retiree and volleyball referee in Council Bluffs, was a longtime Trump supporter but is now 100% behind DeSantis. Romine had the standard take on Trump: “He was good. I voted for him twice. DeSantis is kinda Trump without the abrasiveness.”
Romine doesn’t believe either man is flawless. “None of ’em are perfect,” Ron told me in the parking lot. “But some are less imperfect than others.”