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

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.”

DeSantis, for his part, at campaign stops in Dubuque and Cedar Falls did not mention Saturday’s Des Moines Register final pre-caucus poll that showed Haley moving past him into second place with 20% compared to DeSantis’ 16%. Trump held a large lead with 48%, although that was three points less than the last Register poll in December.

DeSantis did tell attendees that caucus night would be “fun” because he would be able to prove the media wrong with a strong finish.

One source in the campaign apparatus backing DeSantis, who