• Florida Governor Ron DeSantis came to Iowa Tuesday evening, officially kicking off his run for the White House in the kick-off caucus state. In his first campaign stop in what promises to be a long and bruising contest for the GOP presidential nomination, DeSantis pledged to “never back down” from the fight for conservative values or in the battle against big government, the “woke mob” and the assault on individual liberties.
• DeSantis did not utter the name of his chief Republican rival, the elephant in the GOP’s room, former President Donald Trump, who holds a massive lead in primary polls. But the 500-plus Iowans gathered in the auditorium of the sprawling Eternity church campus in suburban Des Moines knew exactly what DeSantis was talking about when he told them, “The tired dogmas of the past are inadequate for a vibrant future.” The line, loosely lifted from Abraham Lincoln’s Dec. 1, 1862 message to congress on the “stormy present” of Civil War America, was a call for a new generation of leadership AD — After Donald.

Tagged: 2024 Election