(C) Florida Phoenix This story was originally published by Florida Phoenix and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Iowa is DeSantis’ next stop on a still-silent but sure campaign run [1] ['Briana Michel', 'More From Author', '- March'] Date: 2023-03-09 After his State of the State address this week, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis will make his debut in Iowa on Friday — ahead of an expected run in the upcoming 2024 presidential race. Democrats aren’t keeping silent about GOP presidential hopefuls. Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart hosted a Thursday 20-minute virtual press conference to discuss whether DeSantis and other GOP hopefuls — like Nikki Haley and Donald Trump — can withstand the Iowan test. DeSantis has not announced his presidential bid, but he has been traversing the country, making speeches and promoting his new book. “These are candidates who, it seems like, are tripping over themselves to prove who will support the most extreme abortion ban, the biggest cuts to healthcare, give the biggest handouts to special interests and will continue with their obsession in taking away the rights of LGBTQ Americans,” Hart said in the Zoom call. Hart said Iowans know that if DeSantis’ “wrong-headed” policy is brought to the state it would be “catastrophic.” “It’s also unconscionable that DeSantis chose to leave his own constituents behind in Florida by refusing to expand Medicaid in the state, despite the fact that Floridians are being crushed by some of the highest health care costs in the nation,” she said. Hart also noted that on the first day of the Florida legislative session, March 7, lawmakers filed a six-week abortion ban with exceptions for rape and incest. “Iowans know how cruel and unacceptable that is,” Hart said. DeSantis signed a 15-week abortion ban last year. GOP hopeful, Nikki Haley, also stopped in Iowa to push what Hart said is an “extreme agenda.” Haley called to change the retirement age and cut medicare and Social Security — a move Hart said Iowan seniors “simply can’t afford.” Former President Donald Trump will make his first appearance to the state on Monday, with education policy as a talking point. “Like he knows something about it,” Hart added. “We don’t need a know-it-all politician like Trump coming in here, not to listen, but to tell us how to run our schools.” Former Vice President Mike Pence and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have also visited the state. “Look, I don’t know who’s going to come out of this GOP primary, but the bottom line is that Iowa and Americans cannot afford the extreme agenda that these folks are peddling,” Hart said. “How does it help Iowans to cut Social Security and Medicare? How does it help Iowans to attack public education? To put big corporations ahead of the rest of us? It doesn’t. Democrats want to continue to prioritize mainstream Iowa and to work to improve the quality of life for all Iowans — not just the well-off, not just the well-connected.” Despite the uncertainty of whether Iowa will be the first to vet these candidates, Hart says he has good faith that Iowans will “wittle” out the extremist candidates. “They will do what they’ve done in the past and meet with these people. They will take it seriously. They will ask the tough questions. They will look to make the differences between candidates real. And that’s the job Iowa has done, respectably, for a long time,” Hart said. She also acknowledged what she calls “definite parallels” between the agendas passed in the Iowa State House and by the GOP presidential candidates. A February Democratic National Committee vote knocked Iowa from the early slate of voting states. It boosted primaries in Nevada, Georgia, Michigan and the new likely first-in-the-nation South Carolina. The nearly unanimous Rules and Bylaws Committee vote was a shakeup requested by President Joe Biden, the Phoenix previously reported. In a Thursday Iowa Press roundtable discussion, reporters safely concluded “the heyday of the Iowa Democratic Caucus is over.” Though superseded by South Carolina in the vote to pick Democratic presidential nominees, the longtime first-in-the-nation state still wields a great deal of power in the 2024 presidential race. “We’re disappointed that not only that Iowa is not first nation, but that the entire middle swath of the nation is left out of this first tier,” Hart said. “But this is not a done deal.” Hart noted conditional waivers granted by New Hampshire and Georgia but said action needs to be taken for this to become a reality. She said the decisions are still “in flux” — even on the Republican side — with Nevada and Michigan seeing challenges with their calendar. In an effort to rule out the “national noise,” Hart said she would like to focus on what issues impact mainstream Iowa and the grassroots, organizational work that “needs to take place” to “elect good Democrats.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://floridaphoenix.com/2023/03/09/iowa-is-desantis-next-stop-on-a-still-silent-but-sure-campaign-run/ Published and (C) by Florida Phoenix Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/floridaphoenix/