ROCK SPEED, Iowa — Some of the most contested real estate for the Republican caucuses in Iowa is a vast, windswept plain where pigs outnumber people by the millions.
The landscape of Northwest Iowa is sparse and consists of high plains, marked in places by fields of white wind turbines. The landscape is punctuated by pig farms with their telltale squats and pungent smell.
This is the evangelical Christian heart of conservative Iowa. While the population is spread across dozens of snowy counties, the tens of thousands of voters here are often crucial in Republican races. Both former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have invested in appealing to politically influential evangelicals, making the battle for northwestern Iowa a microcosm of the race to win Monday’s caucuses.
Trump had planned two rallies in the region this weekend before canceling them due to winter weather. DeSantis has spent many hours courting voters here. On Thursday he stopped in Rock Rapids, population 2,600, before heading to Le Mars, which is about four times the size.
While Republican candidates in Iowa are not talking much about abortion rights, partly reflecting concerns that the issue is a winning one for Democrats, many voters and pastors in northwest Iowa say it is still their central focus.
“Speaking on behalf of my parishioners, many of them look back on Trump and say that under recent presidents he has done more for the pro-life cause,” said the Rev. John Vermeer of Rock Rapids, among many area clergy who are part originates from the conservative Reformed Church that was brought to the area with settlers from the Netherlands more than 150 years ago.
“There is another side that is disappointed with what appears to be pragmatism,” Vermeer said. “And people around here know Governor DeSantis’ record.”
Despite Trump flags flying in the bracing January wind and signs for the former president lining fences, DeSantis is aggressively competing with him here. Several people interviewed in recent days noted that DeSantis had signed a six-week abortion ban in Florida. Trump has criticized a six-week ban as too harsh and has opposed a national abortion ban, arguing it would hurt Republicans politically.
DeSantis hopes to replicate the success of several recent caucus winners.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz competed strongly for northwestern Iowa with his socially conservative brand in 2016, defeating Trump in the region on his way to a narrow caucus victory. In 2012, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum followed Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s winning 2008 GOP caucus formula with a socially conservative message that helped him win across the region.
Though he hosts fewer events in Iowa than his rivals, Trump has far from ignored the strip, though he has spent more time in eastern Iowa’s larger cities. Last week, Trump was in Sioux Center, the Sioux County seat where he won 82% of the vote in 2020.
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who was aiming for a surprise second-place finish in Iowa, has campaigned in northwest Iowa, but less often and to smaller audiences. Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has also been around the region, but appears to have attracted less of a following than DeSantis or Trump.
Joining DeSantis in Rock Rapids, Randy Vande Berg credited Trump for nominating the U.S. Supreme Court justices who helped overturn the landmark abortion rights case Roe v. Wade in 2022. The long-sought goal of abortion opponents is a common one. among Trump supporters who recognize that his three marriages, for example, make him an unconventional choice for devout Christians.
“It’s all in the file. I don’t care what he says. He is responsible for overturning Roe,” said Vande Berg, a 67-year-old insurance agent. “Nobody else running has credentials like that.”
DeSantis and Trump are promoting lists of politically influential pastors from northwest Iowa who support them, though some voters here who would vote for Trump in a heartbeat in a general election were disappointed in his comments condemning Republican underperformance in the 2022 midterm elections blamed GOP candidates with strict anti-Republican votes. -abortion positions.
“It’s just discouraging. Life is life. There’s just no question about it,” said 38-year-old Heidi Kock, a bank employee and Republican who plans to support DeSantis in Monday’s caucuses. “I know where Governor DeSantis’ heart is. And he has the record to back it up. ”