On New Year’s Eve, DeSantis urges crowd to defy odds and help him ‘win the Iowa caucuses’

By THOMAS BEAUMONT
Associated Press

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Ron DeSantis is underscoring how much Iowa means to him, campaigning there into the waning hours of 2023. The Florida governor held a New Year’s Eve event in a Sheraton Hotel ballroom in West Des Moines, where jeans and cowboy boots outnumbered tuxedos and cocktail dresses. Roughly 200 people turned out for the last campaign event of the busy year in Iowa. DeSantis has wagered the future of his Republican bid for president on the leadoff Iowa caucuses, just two weeks away. He asked his supporters if they were “ready to work hard over these next two weeks and win the Iowa caucuses.”