ANKENY, Iowa – The temperatures were in the mid-teens, the winds were howling, and eight inches of snow had already covered the roads, with more coming down on Friday morning.
But the blast of winter weather didn’t stop Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis from holding an early morning campaign event in suburban Des Moines, with three days to go until the Iowa caucuses lead off the Republican presidential nominating calendar.
“I’m really impressed that so many people came out, given the weather,” DeSantis said to the crowd who came out to hear him and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds — who’s backing him — addressed the crowd at a meeting of the Northside Conservatives Club.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican presidential candidate, takes a selfie with a supporter at a campaign stop in Ankeny, Iowa on January 12, 2024. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
And minutes later, DeSantis said in a Fox News Digital interview that “we want people to be safe” in the tough weather conditions. But he pledged, “I’m going to show up” and emphasized that with the clock ticking toward the caucuses, “I’m going to use every minute I can to be able to win votes.”
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While the weather didn’t sidetrack DeSantis’ first campaign stop of the day, his remaining four stops in northern, central and eastern Iowa, which were being organized by Never Back Down, his aligned super PAC, were postponed.
Due to the rough road conditions across the Hawkeye State, the campaign of former ambassador to the United Nations and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley canceled their in-person events on Friday and instead were holding tele-town halls.
The snow piles up as the temperatures plunged in Ankeny, Iowa on January 12, 2024. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
“I’m sorry I’m not in Fort Dodge, but it was important for me to talk to you,” Haley emphasized at the top of one of her events.
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Asked if Haley should have hit the campaign trail regardless of the weather, DeSantis told Fox News “that’s for her to decide.”
“I believe in interacting with the voters,” he emphasized. “And anytime I get a chance to do that, I do it. And I think it helps us. We end up converting people.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican presidential candidate, speaks to the crowd at a Northside Conservatives Club event in Ankeny, Iowa, on January 12, 2024 (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
DeSantis did head over to his campaign headquarters in suburban Des Moines in the afternoon to speak with volunteers who were making calls to urge supporters to attend Monday’s caucuses.
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The latest polls in Iowa indicate that DeSantis and Haley are battling for a distant second place behind former President Donald Trump, who remains the commanding front-runner in the caucus and in national surveys, as he makes his third straight White House run.
Former U.N. Ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a 2024 Republican presidential candidate, speaks to the crowd at a campaign event in Ankeny, Iowa, on January 11, 2024. (Fox News/Paul Steinhauser) (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
Haley, who’s soared in recent months, now has second place all to herself and is closing the gap with Trump in New Hampshire, which holds the first primary and second overall contest in the GOP nominating calendar eight days after Iowa votes.
Asked whether he’s heading on to New Hampshire regardless of his finish in Iowa, DeSantis reiterated “We’re going to be in New Hampshire. Yeah.”
And he teased that “we’ll announce some town halls.”
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DeSantis in recent weeks has seemingly upped his criticism of Trump in his stump speeches and in interviews.
DeSantis pointed toward Dr. Anthony Fauci as he told the crowd, “The former president was out here the other day doing a town hall, and he said he had nothing to do with Fauci. And he said I was the one that was involved with Fauci. That is gaslighting. That is revisionist history. He elevated Fauci.”
Former President and 2024 Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump arrives to speak during a Fox News town hall in Des Moines, Iowa, on January 10, 2024. (KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
Fauci, who for nearly four decades served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was the public face of the White House efforts to battle the coronavirus during the Trump presidency. He later served as top medical adviser to President Biden before retiring.
DeSantis, who soared in popularity among conservatives nationwide for his vocal pushback against COVID restrictions from the federal government, has long targeted Fauci.
Minutes later, in his interview, DeSantis argued that Trump “tries to gaslight and tries to blame me on it, even though he’s on tape in 2020 praising Florida for being open and praising Florida for being free, because he knows it’s a vulnerability for him. . . . He’s just not willing to admit that he made a mistake on that.”
Responding, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung, in a statement to Fox News, charged that “Ron DeSantis and his entire campaign is just one giant gaslight of the American people. That’s why he keeps falling further and further, as his political career is dead.”
Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.