More than nine months before the Iowa caucus, eight potential and proclaimed presidential candidates went to a conservative Christian gathering on Saturday night to test a question: Whether Are flesh-and-blood politicians eyeing the highest office in the country opposed by a conservative? pre-recorded video?
The answer is almost certainly yes.
The audio doesn’t quite match the video of former President Donald J. Trump’s recorded message to hundreds of people gathered at the biggest cattle call of the fledgling campaign season. His signature hype was rushed into the final, 10-minute timeframe that closed the Iowa Freedom and Faith Alliance spring warmup.
But the reception for the man was not there – and who, according to a new NBC News poll has the support of nearly 70 percent of the Republican primaries – a stark contrast to the endorsements given to supporters and candidates preoccupied with making the trip who hardly bother trying knock the leader out of his position.
Their strategy seems simple: Avoid confronting the more famous, more well-funded frontrunners, hoping Mr. Trump’s attacks will knock out — or at least knock out — Ron DeSantis, Florida governor, who comes in second in most Republican polls, and hopes outside forces, namely the indictments, bring down Mr. Trump.
Then it’s anyone’s game.
Vivek Ramaswamy, a multi-millionaire businessman and author, said in an interview before the speech in which the former president’s name was not uttered: “I think Donald Trump and I will be coming together soon. each other in this race. “I know that sounds odd to current watchers like you, but if you want to see where the ball is going, then you’re going to crave an outsider.”
Iowa conservatives attending Saturday’s events swore they were open to a Republican candidate not named Trump. They munched on Chick-fil-A bread, listened intently and eagerly talked about politics eight years after the last real Republican presidential run in Iowa.
“I want to see them fight it,” said Dan Applegate, former co-chair of the Dallas County, Iowa, GOP. The best candidates are the ones who can get through.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence appeared, greeted as a celebrity by potential voters, although his call for military aid to Ukraine received a lukewarm response. Senator Tim Scott, Republic of South Carolina, Asa Hutchinson, former governor of Arkansas, and several others are under the radar, such as radio personality Larry Elder, former Representative Will Hurd of Texas, Tulsi Gabbard, a So does the Democratic congresswoman. – became the conservative fly, and a businessman named Perry Johnson.
In fact, Mr Johnson was the only speaker to challenge the leader by name as he concluded his remarks: “I just wanted to say, DeSantis is making a big mistake not coming here. And I don’t understand it, but each one alone.”
Prospects, on the other hand, just want to avoid candidates who have chosen not to come in person.
“It’s about being able to deliver a message that resonates and realizing that we want a better tomorrow than yesterday. We want the next year to be better,” Hurd said on his first trip to Iowa, “and I think anyone who exploits that, regardless of the competition, can succeed.” labour.”
It was early in the race, extremely early. In April 2015, two months before Mr. Trump descended the escalator at Trump Tower to announce his candidacy, those gathered at the same Faith and Freedom forum had no idea what was coming their way. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida warned of the jihadist metastasis threat. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky frets about Common Core, a long-forgotten concern about the nationalization of school curricula.
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas objected that the Supreme Court had only one vote left to order small businesses to serve gay couples, while Rick Perry, a former Texas governor, bragged that under Under his leadership, his state ended abortion at 20 weeks, a threshold that would be seen as the height of timidity in the post-Roe v. Wade GOP
Once Mr. Trump steps in, those issues will be swept away by his distinctive political style and distinctive naming.
This time, the potential candidates knew exactly what they were up against, but they didn’t mention it. Mr. Pence fretted about “extremist gender ideology” and students being punished for using incorrect pronouns. extremists, they are selling the drug of the victim and the anesthetic of despair.”
In private, Mr. Ramaswamy suggested that voters of faith could really see through Mr. Trump’s hypothetical religious pitfalls, and he rebuked Mr. DeSantis for refusing to sit down with the news outlets. which he deemed ideologically hostile and spoke on university campus. In public, he was more eloquent, declining to be named when he said that if a conservative can’t visit a university campus on his own, he probably shouldn’t be sitting across the table with him. Xi Jinping, China’s top leader.
Mr. Trump can give audiences what they’re looking for, praising Roe v. Wade — “nobody thought it was going to happen” — and is the most anti-abortion president ever, promising to “wipe out the poignant state,” “hunt down” the “excessors.” Radicals and Marxists have infiltrated the federal Ministry of Education.” He concludes, “The gender lunacy that the left is putting on our children is an act of child abuse, and it must end immediately.”
It went through well. Paul Thurmond, 65, from Des Moines, chatted and shook hands with Mr. Pence as the former vice president walked from table to table. As for Mr. Thurmond, although he said he was open, he clearly favored Mr. Trump.
“Right now, I think Pence is a very nice person,” he said. He won’t be able to resist the evil the Democrats will bring down on him.”
