Ron DeSantis, the Republican presidential candidate, disregarded his lackluster polling numbers prior to Monday’s Iowa caucuses.
Jake Tapper of CNN inquired whether DeSantis would withdraw from the race if he finished third in Iowa.
Tapper cited a recent NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll that places the Florida governor at a mere 16 percent of support in the state, trailing both former President Trump and former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley.
DeSantis predicted on “State of the Union” that he would do well in the Iowa presidential election.
“And so these are folks who are very motivated. Our voters are very motivated. We have spent a lot of time in Iowa because we’ve gone door to door getting people to commit to caucus to us,” DeSantis said.
“We’ve got a huge number of people that have committed to caucus and we expect that these are the people that turn out so there’s a lot of excitement on the ground. We’re in this for the long haul,” he continued.
The governor responded that his campaign has already organized events in those early primary states—New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada—in response to a further question regarding DeSantis’s potential continuation of the contest.
“I’m participating in the caucus against Donald Trump. Nikki Haley is not and so she can’t win any delegates in Nevada. My view would be if you’re in it to win it. You got to compete for every single delegate. And so especially when you have the proportional, you got to be out there,” he continued.
At present, Trump holds a nearly significant advantage over his nearest opponent in Iowa according to polling.
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