Room for one more...at least
The 2024 Republican presidential race: Donald Trump vs. Ron DeSantis. That’s what the national media narrative has been for months. Never mind the dozen other Republicans who are running. However, this race has room for more than the former president and the governor of Florida. And voters deserve coverage that includes more than these two.
This 2024 campaign resembles 2016 in this aspect: Trump gets an oversized share of the media coverage. The other candidates get the scraps. Dave Busiek, the esteemed, former longtime news director at KCCI-TV in Des Moines, wrote of the dangers of the lopsided Trump coverage. It’s worth your read.
Trump’s criminal indictments warrant media coverage, of course. The seriousness of the charges merit coverage. But coverage must also include the rest of the field, at least the ones who are actively campaigning in the early states. (Unless something changes, I do not include California commentator Larry Elder among those who are seriously campaigning. Elder seems to be running to elevate the importance of getting fathers involved in their children’s lives. That could be a worthy conversation. But Elder, to my knowledge, is not making the commitment to travel across the early states, hold events, staff up to support a presidential campaign, etc.).
And while DeSantis has routinely run second in the national polls since the beginning of this campaign, he isn’t the only other candidate who should get media coverage…and the scrutiny of his candidacy. Additional note: none of this is to say that Trump or DeSantis won’t win the party’s nomination. Either one could. I just want to underscore the importance of the media providing fair coverage to all the serious contenders.
I’ve thought throughout this process that there should be room for at least three serious contenders for the GOP nomination. I still think that’s the case. At least three, actually.
Yes, Trump came into this race a heavy favorite since he has earned the nomination the past two cycles and has remade much of the party in his image (unless someone else can guide the party in a new direction). But because of alleged criminal activity, past actions and behaviors as president, along with current claims and conduct, he is not a “shoo-in.”
Alex Thompson, national political correspondent for Axiox, sent out the following nugget on Twitter, “X,” or whatever we are currently calling this platform.
The poll shows that Trump has a sizable lead in both Iowa and New Hampshire (the first two states in the presidential nominating calendar for Republicans next year). However, the numbers also show that more than half the people surveyed favor someone else. That’s significant…potentially. And it might be indicative that a good chunk of the likely GOP electorate is thinking that it could be time to move on from Trump but that group of people isn’t convinced yet which challenger to support.
I’ve already mentioned that there are a dozen other candidates running. There is a lot of time, which means numerous opportunities for someone to surge in popularity. So I always want to be careful not to overplay a particular moment or candidate.
But let’s look at three candidates who’ve received some attention in the few weeks since the first debate: Vivek Ramaswamy, Tim Scott and Nikki Haley.
Ramaswamy, the extremely wealthy entrepreneur from Ohio, got a lot of attention during the first debate and since. But let’s see what this does for voters looking at him. Is Ramaswamy running as a younger version of Trump and is that a viable strategy? He is getting a lot of scrutiny into his ideas and statements. Those ideas deserve a deeper dive here in the near future.
For now, I’ll just include this Fox story where Ramaswamy gets pressed on what he is all about.
Tim Scott, the U.S. senator from South Carolina, campaigns heavily on his Christian faith and his biography (raised by a single mother without a lot of money). He doesn’t seem to do much to contrast his plans with Trump’s unless forced to do so by voters or the media. So, to me, he will need to lay out a path that offers something different from Trump and that could mean spelling out to voters *how it is different (and better).
The Des Moines Register has a new piece out — led by lead chief politics reporter Brianne Pfannenstiel — with some Iowa politicos who want Scott to add some policy depth into his campaign.
That leaves Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and Trump’s U.S. ambassador to the United States. In a previous column, I mentioned her effective line at the debate (yes, I’m sure it was pre-planned) that separated her not only from Trump, but also Scott, DeSantis and former vice president Mike Pence. She pointed out their role in substantially increasing the nation’s debt since they were all part of getting Trump’s budgets passed. Strong move.
Does Haley have a higher ceiling in Iowa than Scott or Ramaswamy? Than DeSantis or Trump? That remains to be seen. But if she builds on what she did at the debate, continues to explain policy differences between the other candidates (including Trump) and campaigns heavily in Iowa, she could keep climbing.
(Dave Price is a native Midwesterner and Iowan by choice for the past 22 years. He has written two books on the uniqueness of presidential campaigns in Iowa. You should buy one. All the cool kids are:)
Thanks for reading and please consider checking out other members of the Iowa Writers Collaborative, a group of independent writers across the state.
That Nikki finished in the top three in any poll is encouraging. Like Elizabeth Warren, Haley has “a plan.” Her background, critical-thinking skills and unmistakable assertiveness give her a distinct edge over Ramaswamy for sure. And Desantis? He’d better get ready if he intends to hold his Iowa first place. Haley might just be the one who is our first woman president.
Thanks! Good stuff again. Here in Germany the coverage is obviously a lot less than in Iowa and very much centered areound Trump and DeSantis.
So the indictments to some extend lead to a bigger focus on Trump?