JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Florida Gov. Don DeSantis is back on the campaign trail after coming in second place in the Iowa caucuses.
Former President Donald Trump received 51% of the votes in Iowa, while DeSantis had 21%. In third place was former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley with 19% of the vote.
MORE: Iowa Republicans sent a vivid signal this week that their party belongs to Donald Trump
On Tuesday night, Gov. DeSantis is set to have a town hall in New Hampshire, and on Tuesday morning he addressed voters in Greenville, South Carolina.
“Nikki Haley said only the top two from Iowa…go on to be viable. Well, guess what? We pressed our ticket out of Iowa!” DeSantis said Tuesday morning.
News4JAX Political Analyst Rick Mullaney, who is also the Director of the Jacksonville University Public Policy Institute, said the Florida governor’s showing in Iowa didn’t garner the splash of momentum candidates often hope to garner out of the gate.
“Donald Trump has a commanding lead, and we are trying to portray this as being a competitive race. But at the moment, it’s really not competitive. It’s Donald Trump’s. For Governor DeSantis, Iowa was a disappointment,” Mullaney said.
Mullaney noted that could mean trouble for fundraising going forward.
“He has lost some donor support,” he said. “He has lost some funding, and he has spent a lot in Iowa. And he was he was betting his campaign on his performance in Iowa.”
The latest available federal campaign finance records show as of late September, the DeSantis campaign had raised more than $31 million, putting him in third place behind Trump and Biden when it came to fundraising. Through the same timeframe , the DeSantis campaign had spent $19 million, according to the records.
Mullaney said in New Hampshire, which tends to have more moderate voters than Iowa, Haley will have an edge over DeSantis. But for now, polls suggest GOP primary voters favor Trump, even as he faces dozens of criminal charges.
“The odds very much favor that [Trump] will be on the ballot. But I’m sure it is going through the minds of Gov. Haley, and Gov. DeSantis, that they want to be the alternative. And you never know what events may help spring you into the lead,” Mullaney said.
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