Even though the Iowa caucuses are being held 1,700 miles from California and temperatures are much colder here, the Golden State and its elected officials are preparing for Monday's first national presidential nominating contest. Leaders, and their policies, were always targeted.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis tells The Iowan that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) may be a “hedge fund master” given how much money she made in the stock market while in office. He said it was sexual. He accused his Republican rival, former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, of telling more lies and being “more liberal than Gavin Newsom.” Haley said she fears Kamala Harris' presidency as much as she feared former President Trump's next term.
It has become a tradition for Republicans to bash California, one of the most liberal states in the nation. But Republican presidential candidates may be more likely to target states and their politicians this term, as they are better targets than President Biden.
“Biden doesn't motivate villains as much as other Democrats, which means the Republican candidates are effectively running a negative campaign against California,” University of Southern California, University of California, Berkeley Dan Schnur, a political science professor at Pepperdine School, said.
He pointed to DeSantis' attack on Haley during last week's debate as evidence of that.
“The worst thing Ron DeSantis said about Nikki Haley during the debate was that she might be more liberal than Gavin Newsom,” Schnurr added. “This is an absolutely terrifying concept for Iowa Republicans, or any other Republican.”
California was once a stronghold of the Republican Party and launched the political careers of Presidents Nixon and Reagan. But in the decades since President Reagan left office, conservative attacks on the nation have intensified.
In 2002, President George W. Bush also apologized for calling American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh “the misguided hot tubber of Marin County.” By 2012, California was the most hated state in the nation, according to a poll of Americans by Public Policy Polling. About 44% of those surveyed said they viewed the state negatively.
Currently, Republican fundraising appeals show that the state's residents, particularly Hollywood celebrities and tech billionaires, are fueling Democratic campaigns, even as the state provides huge political contributions to Republican candidates. They are loudly advertising that they are there.
During this election cycle, DeSantis compared Haley to Newsom. discussed in novemberduring a CNN showdown in Des Moines last week.
DeSantis brought up Pelosi while campaigning at Jethro's Barbecue in Ames, lamenting the lack of rules for lawmakers.
“I think there's a problem with Congress… Congress is almost disconnected from the people. They live under different rules,” he said, adding that he has not traded stocks since being elected president. , added that he was comparing himself to Pelosi. “They're making a lot of money in the market…and I don't think members of Congress should be doing stock trading. I think that needs to be reformed.”
Haley singled out Harris, the current vice president, former senator and state attorney general, when discussing why she believes Trump should not be re-elected president.
“As you all know, he's going to have chaos. And just because we can't survive, we can't turn into a chaotic country and have the world go up in flames and have four more years of chaos.” she told supporters at an event space in Ankeny. “You can't defeat Democratic chaos with Republican chaos. And the other thing we have to think about is we can never afford a Kamala Harris president.”
Former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, who has family ties to California and has spent a lot of time in the state, said why Iowa should play such an important role in selecting presidential candidates. He said that before asking whether this is the case, the fiscal situation and policies should be thoroughly reviewed.
“Maybe I should get a house.” In order. “California has the largest deficit and California is heading in the wrong direction,” Branstad said in an interview. “California does a lot of things. It's a beautiful state, the weather is great, everything else is great. But now people are leaving because of the tax burden, the hostility, all the regulations.”
