Kellyanne Conway accuses Ron DeSantis of ‘living in Iowa’, neglecting gubernatorial duties

conway, kellyanne
The analyst took issue with the Governor's campaign strategy during an interview Thursday.

Is Florida’s Governor not in the state enough?

Political strategist and commentator Kellyanne Conway is making that contention about Ron DeSantis, taking him to task for “living in Iowa” but having nothing to show for it with regard to his presidential campaign.

“When I asked the DeSantis people, ‘How in the world did you waste six months between November (2022) and this 20-point victory in Florida and May (2023), when he announced, why did you waste those six months?’ And they say to me, ‘Well, he had a state to run.’ Well, he still has a state to run and he’s living in Iowa, not Florida,” Conway said on Fox News’ “The Faulkner Focus.”

Conway also during the interview chastised DeSantis and Nikki Haley for spending big in Iowa to little effect.

“I think two people have benefited from the $105 million worth of ads in Iowa: Donald Trump, the front-runner, and the people who get paid 20% to run those ads. And they are convincing these candidates that it’s worth their time and money and precious political currency to continue to run these ads,” Conway said. “I think it’s political malpractice.”

DeSantis is essentially homesteading in the Hawkeye State through the Jan. 15 caucuses, though he will be back in Florida for Tuesday’s “State of the State” address to the Legislature, a yearly statement of priorities from the executive branch that is Florida’s equivalent to the President’s State of the Union speech.

DeSantis, who said this week that he wished Iowa were having a “satellite caucus” in Southwest Florida for snowbird Hawkeyes, faces a major poll deficit. Some surveys even show him in third place in the state.

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has been the Northeast Florida correspondent for Florida Politics since 2014. He writes for the New York Post and National Review also, with previous work in the American Conservative and Washington Times and a 15+ year run as a columnist in Folio Weekly. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


7 comments

  • GOPity

    January 4, 2024 at 12:32 pm

    Let the part time Governor of Iowa explain his insane gun laws to the citizens and children of Perry, Iowa. There’s nothing in the 2nd Amendment granting hunting rights at schools.

    • JD

      January 4, 2024 at 1:21 pm

      GOPity is the best moniker ever.

    • Michael K

      January 4, 2024 at 1:28 pm

      The entire GOP is wholly owned by gun manufacturers who have perverted the 2nd Amendment by convincing a segment of Americans that the mass murder of human beings is an insignificant cost to unfettered access to guns. It’s harder to vote in Florida than it is to buy a gun.

  • Dont Say FLA

    January 4, 2024 at 1:16 pm

    Good for Florida and good for USA. The longer Rhonda spends in any state but Florida, that’s good for Florida that he isn’t at home trying to penalize drag queens for whatever’s bothering him today (which definitely ain’t any mass shootings bothering Rhonda).

    And the longer Rhonda spends in a non-Florida state, that’s good for the USA as people in early primary states learn every day how much, now more than ever, Everybody Hates Rhonda.

  • Lex

    January 5, 2024 at 8:04 am

    Republicans are going to rue the day they got trapped into running Donald Trump in the 2024 election. At least one Democratic jurisdiction is going to convict Trump before the election. Trump will be running from a jail cell and while that makes Trump a hero for Republicans, Trump will get almost no independent/middle-of-the-road votes. Meanwhile, Trump and Desantis have essentially the same policies. Desantis ran Florida ridiculously well during COVID. Desantis doesn’t have the mean tweets and saying things I don’t want my kids to repeat issues. Trump was a very good president, but Trump lost the last election. I am not sure what changed in the last four years that is going to make Trump more electable. If you want to say Biden is unelectable, I say you are a fool if you think that the Democrats won’t replace Biden with someone else before the election.

    • Silly Wabbit

      January 5, 2024 at 1:37 pm

      You kwazy.

  • TJC

    January 5, 2024 at 1:56 pm

    Kellyanne Conway is a cynical self-absorbed Trump devotee who is counting on GOP voters’ uncanny ability to deny facts and forget history. She’s right, DeSantis is wasting donated money, and she should know this “political malpractice” when she sees it. Her lord and master, Donald Trump, has wasted more donated money than any other politician in the country — it was wasted in his campaign to seek re-election in 2020, it continues to be wasted to protect him from numerous criminal charges, and it is being wasted once again in (deja vu) his campaign to seek re-election. But Kellyanne Conway says don’t look here, look over there, and keep looking over there, nothing to see here. Kellyanne’s way is the con way.

Comments are closed.


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