Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Sunday vowed to stay in the presidential race for the “long haul” despite a poor showing in the final Iowa poll before Monday’s caucuses.
“We’ve got a huge number of people that have committed to caucus, and we expect that these are the people that turn out,” DeSantis told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” before a slate of events in Iowa.
“We’re in this for the long haul. We understand that you got to win a majority of the delegates. We understand that that there’s a long process here, but we’re going to do well, because we’ve done it right.”
His comments follow the release of a Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom poll that found former President Donald Trump holding a wide lead over his Republican presidential competitors among likely GOP caucusgoers in Iowa.
Overall, 48% of likely caucusgoers say Trump would be their first choice, 20% name former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and 16% DeSantis, with the rest of the field below 10%.
But DeSantis maintained Sunday that while “some of these voters appreciate what [Trump] did” they still “understand that there’s some drawbacks here about nominating him in 2024.”
Monday’s caucuses, he said, “will be instructive.”
Complicating this year’s nominating contest is the dangerously frigid weather that Iowans will be confronted with when they head to the polls on caucus day,
While some DeSantis events were “postponed” due to the weather this weekend, the Florida governor has pushed on with several events, including a gaggle in the snow outside of his Urbandale, Iowa, headquarters.
“Obviously, we want people to be safe, but we will be there to help people if they need. We’ve already arranged rides for a lot of folks. This is just something that’s important,” he said.
The day after the Iowa caucuses, DeSantis is scheduled to attend an event in South Carolina before heading to New Hampshire for another event and to participate in a CNN town hall.