AP Photo/Bryon Houlgrave
- After Casey DeSantis gave confusing guidance about the Iowa caucuses, the Trump campaign hit back.
- Casey DeSantis encouraged out-of-state supporters to "descend" on Iowa to boost Ron DeSantis' bid.
- But she was making a pitch to volunteers. The Trump campaign alleged that the couple was inviting voter fraud.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, trailing badly against former President Donald Trump in the 2024 Republican presidential primary contest, has gone all in on his goal of winning the Iowa caucuses.
But a comment from DeSantis' wife, Casey DeSantis, sent the Trump campaign into a tizzy on Saturday, after she said during a "Mamas for DeSantis" event on Friday that out-of-state supporters should come to Iowa in January to boost her husband's campaign.
Casey DeSantis, who encouraged mothers and grandmothers to "descend" on the state and remarked that they "do not have to be a resident of Iowa to be able to participate in the caucus," unwittingly gave confusing guidance that prompted the Iowa Republican Party to post on X that only Iowa residents could actually vote in the caucuses.
Florida's first lady soon clarified that out-of-state backers of her husband's presidential bid would be welcome in Iowa to help the campaign and advocate for her husband to GOP caucusgoers.
However, Trump sought to paint both Ron DeSantis and Casey DeSantis as complicit in voter fraud, an issue that the former president has long used as a political wedge, notably in his 2020 election loss to now-President Joe Biden.
During interview w/ @marthamaccallum, Casey DeSantis called on an out-of-state coalition of mothers and grandmothers “to descend upon the state of Iowa to be a part of the caucus” and “let their voices be heard.”
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) December 8, 2023
“You do not have to be a resident of Iowa,” she said. pic.twitter.com/Z8FsKrFM0K
"We demand the Governor of Iowa Kim Reynolds clarify what the rules are and that the instructions given by the DeSantises are flagrantly wrong that could further disenfranchise caucus-goers," the Trump campaign said in a statement on Saturday. "Even the Republican Party of Iowa had to immediately issue a response to the DeSantises wrong information."
"The Trump campaign strongly condemns their dirty and illegal tactics and implores all Trump supporters to be aware of the DeSantises' openly stated plot to rig the Caucus through fraud," it added.
Ron DeSantis strongly pushed back against the notion that his wife was asking non-Iowans to come to the state to vote in the caucuses.
"We really appreciate Casey and everything she's doing, as well as Gov. Reynolds," he said after the Iowa event. "Obviously, you can't vote in the caucus, but you can help with it."
Election integrity has been a major issue among the Republican electorate for years, as millions of Trump's supporters believe that voter malfeasance marred the 2020 election, despite no proof of widespread fraud and the Trump legal team's inability to produce evidence that would back up the former president's claims.