Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis celebrated in Newton Saturday with his campaign and supporters, touting his accomplishment of visiting all 99 Iowa counties, an achievement known as a “Full Grassley” tour.
The DeSantis campaign shared a list of 130 stops across 98 of Iowa’s counties with the Des Moines Register. Newton in Jasper County brought the total Saturday to 99. The “Full Grassley” was coined by longtime U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, who travels to every Iowa county each year.
DeSantis’ accounting included high profile events such as the Family Leadership Summit in Polk County and U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ annual tailgate in Johnson County.
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It also included private events, such as fundraisers for state legislators, in addition to stops at the world’s largest popcorn ball in Sac County and Waspy’s Truck Stop in Audubon County.
DeSantis said in Newton that visiting the state’s 99 counties is not just about the Iowa Caucuses, but about how he would lead the entire country.
He said doing the “Full Grassley” tour shows he considers himself a “servant, not a ruler” — someone who comes from among the people he serves, earns support for his candidacy and serves no agenda but of the people.
“Iowa will begin the revival of the United States of America,” DeSantis said.
Republican presidential candidate Ryan Binkley’s campaign claimed that Binkley completed a “Full Grassley” tour on Nov. 10.
DeSantis and Nikki Haley were tied for second place far behind former President Donald Trump in the most recent Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll, though polling nationally has shown Haley’s popularity has been increasing while DeSantis’ has been slipping.
Still, DeSantis has been accumulating a rising number of endorsements from Iowa political leaders. Several of them joined him and his wife, Casey DeSantis, in Newton Saturday, including Gov. Kim Reynolds, Family Leader president and CEO Bob Vander Plaats, Iowa House Majority Leader Rep. Matt Winschitl and other state lawmakers.
Vander Plaats said, “Voting for Ron DeSantis is not against Donald Trump. It is about the future of our country.”
Reynolds said DeSantis “showed up for us, now we’ve got to show up for him.”
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Des Moines Register reporter Brianne Pfannenstiel contributed to this report.
Phillip Sitter focuses for the Des Moines Register on reporting on suburban growth and development in the western metro areas. Phillip also is helping cover Republican presidential campaigns, including that of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, ahead of the 2024 Iowa Caucus. Phillip can be reached via email at psitter@gannett.com. He is on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @pslifeisabeauty.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Ron DeSantis completes 99-country tour during Iowa Caucuses campaign