A Glimpse of DeSantis in Iowa: Awkward, but Still Winning the Crowd

DAVENPORT, Iowa — Suzy Barker, a native Iowan dressed in an orange-and-blue University of Florida hoodie, waited in a crowd of fellow Republicans on Friday morning to meet Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida.

She smiled widely and pointed to her hoodie as she told the governor that her son attended college in his home state. Mr. DeSantis — dressed in a dark blue suit with a light blue, open-collar shirt and black boots — stood on the opposite side of 10 metal bike racks separating him from the crowd. He gave a slight nod to Ms. Barker and told her about his state’s new “grandparent waiver” that gives tuition breaks to out-of-state students whose grandparents are Florida residents.

But Ms. Barker, a 50-year-old teacher who had driven about an hour to see the Florida governor in Davenport, does not have any other family in the Sunshine State, and she narrowed her eyes in confusion at his response. Here she was at an event promoting Mr. DeSantis’s new book, shoulder to shoulder with a crush of Iowans eager for face time with the anti-woke darling of right-wing America, and he was talking waivers.

Mr. DeSantis quickly scribbled his name with a black Sharpie in her book and smiled. “Go Gators,” he told her as he moved on to the next person awaiting his signature.

The interaction underscored both the promise and the potential pitfall of a presidential bid for Mr. DeSantis. His preference for policy over personality can make him seem awkward and arrogant or otherwise astonishing in person, depending on the voter and the success or failure of his one-on-one exchanges. Many Republicans view his style as an antidote to the character attacks and volatility that have underscored Republican politics during the Trump era.

As Mr. DeSantis decides whether to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, one of the biggest questions facing the 44-year-old Floridian is his ability to connect with voters who have had little exposure to him outside his home state.

Unlike Florida, where elections are often won or lost on the strength of carefully crafted multimillion-dollar TV ad campaigns, the Republican presidential primary remains front-loaded with contests in states like Iowa where voters value personal interactions.

But Mr. DeSantis has leaned into his reputation as a political brawler, lacking the kind of warmth and charisma that helped lift Bill Clinton, John McCain and other politicians. Mr. DeSantis’s disregard for some of the typical pleasantries of politics can produce some uncomfortable moments.

Earlier this year, he turned off some deep-pocketed donors during a previously unreported meeting when he largely kept to his own corner of the room and showed little interest in interacting with the crowd, according to one person briefed on the meeting.

At a stop in Houston last week to promote his book and help raise money for the Harris County Republican Party, Mr. DeSantis was scheduled to speak to several hundred people who had paid extra money to hear him ahead of a speech to a larger crowd. But Mr. DeSantis spent only a few minutes in the smaller room and never took the stage, irritating some in attendance.

Cindy Siegal, the chairwoman of the county party, said Mr. DeSantis saved his remarks for the larger group and that she had not heard any complaints from attendees. A spokesman for Mr. DeSantis declined to comment.

Still, Mr. DeSantis has enjoyed a rapid rise on the national stage thanks to his assertive record, overwhelming re-election in Florida, a combative media strategy and glowing coverage from Fox News.

But while he is viewed as the leading alternative to former President Donald J. Trump, who remains the front-runner to win his third consecutive Republican presidential nomination, Mr. DeSantis still is not widely known.

In Iowa, 20 percent of Republicans said they didn’t know enough about the Florida governor to have an opinion about him, according to a Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll released on Friday. Just 1 percent said the same about Mr. Trump.

Whether Mr. DeSantis can close the gap with Mr. Trump will be determined, in part, on his success in states like Iowa, where Republican voters want to share the same air as presidential candidates. These voters expect to see the contenders in person, hear how they speak to their neighbors and feel like they know them before deciding whom to support.

“I really stand back and reserve my judgment until I can get to know them — especially this time,” said Linda Greenlee, an Iowa grandmother who attended the DeSantis event in Davenport. “Because it’s going to take a very special person to beat the Democrats in 2024.”

Mr. DeSantis’s first visit to Iowa included stops at Rhythm City Casino Resort in Davenport and the Elwell Family Food Center, a large event space at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. Curiosity about the rising Republican star helped draw healthy crowds: On a snowy, chilly weekday, more than 1,000 people had arrived at the casino by 9 a.m. and a similar standing-room-only crowd was on hand at 5 p.m. in Des Moines.

“I liked that he was down to earth,” Rob Corry, a 57-year-old real estate consultant, said after getting his book signed at the state fairgrounds, where, as in Davenport, free copies were passed out to the audience. “He didn’t go for any wild and crazy applause lines and just let his record speak for itself. We don’t need a big show in Iowa.”

Still, Mr. DeSantis seems determined to keep an arm’s-length distance as he introduces himself to voters, and his Iowa events showcased both his strengths and his weaknesses.

He’s at his best standing in front of a camera armed with studied talking points. In Davenport, he spent more than 30 minutes at a podium, paging through notes as he relived a re-election victory with a record-breaking margin and recalled his efforts to block Covid-19 vaccine mandates in his state.

Waving his hands and pointing at the crowd to make his points, Mr. DeSantis drew applause at least 10 times during the first 10 minutes of his speech, including for his victory in Miami-Dade County, which, he pointed out, Hillary Clinton won in 2016 by about 30 points.

Ms. Clinton’s opponent that year was Mr. Trump, but Mr. DeSantis never mentioned his party leader’s name. His potential rival for the Republican nomination has scheduled his own event in Davenport for Monday.

Instead, Mr. DeSantis drew clear contrasts by focusing on his victory in the state — which came amid major disappointments for Republicans at the national level, losses that have been largely blamed on Mr. Trump.

Mr. DeSantis said he had never looked at polls to guide his decisions as governor. It was a remark that subtly evoked Mr. Trump’s constant discussion of polls on the campaign trail.

“We were shifting people in our direction because they were responding to leadership,” Mr. DeSantis said, adding that governing should be less about responding to polls and more “about changing opinions.”

Mr. DeSantis also described his own administration as a tightly run ship, which might be juxtaposed against a Trump presidency that delivered constant turnover in the West Wing.

“There’s no drama in our administration,” he said. “There’s no palace intrigue.”

Still, as Mr. DeSantis spoke from the podium, he seemed to forget about his host for the day, Kim Reynolds, the Republican governor of Iowa. Ms. Reynolds waited patiently for him to join her for a discussion in one of two seats set up on the other side of the stage.

When Mr. DeSantis acknowledged her after speaking for more than 30 minutes, Ms. Reynolds drew laughs from the crowd as she flashed him a look and stretched out her arms as if to beckon him to her side of the stage. At the second event in Des Moines, Mr. DeSantis cut his speech to about 20 minutes.

If the questions from Ms. Reynolds were designed to show a more personal side of the Florida governor, Mr. DeSantis, a former college baseball player, swung and missed a few times.

In Davenport, when Ms. Reynolds asked about his wife, Casey, and their three young children, Mr. DeSantis turned the conversation back to a policy discussion. In Des Moines, when she attempted to interject an off-the-cuff anecdote into the conversation, Mr. DeSantis smiled and nodded and then promptly continued making his previous point.

After about 10 minutes onstage in Davenport, the two governors ended the event and worked the crowd waiting on the opposite side of the bike racks. Mr. DeSantis seemed determined to sign every book and smile for every selfie the crowd wanted.

Ms. Barker, the teacher in the University of Florida hoodie, walked away from her interaction with Mr. DeSantis as an enthusiastic backer.

She said that he was focused on issues that were important to her, like education, and that he reminded her of Ms. Reynolds, a politician with a similarly buttoned-up style.

“He did an outstanding job,” Ms. Barker said, adding that she hadn’t thought much yet about the 2024 primary, but would probably be a DeSantis supporter. “I just don’t think Trump can win,” she said, adding, “It’s a lot of the same policies with DeSantis but with a less crass delivery.”

Mr. DeSantis made three full passes along the bike racks in Davenport, which took more than 20 minutes. His patience seemed to run thin at times, as he asked some people about the selfies, with the thinnest of smiles stretched across his face, “Did you get it?”

As he signed books at both stops, Mr. DeSantis asked veterans about their service, parents about their children and others about their favorite baseball teams, waiting only briefly for their answers. When a reporter asked how he was enjoying the book tour, Mr. DeSantis gave a quick glance out of the corner of his eye.

“It’s going fine,” he said.

J. David Goodman and Shane Goldmacher contributed reporting.