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Campaign Almanac: Iowa’s Zach Nunn to host DeSantis as 'special guest' at new event
Also, pro-Pence super PAC releases Iowa ad
Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will speak at a new event hosted by Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn.
Nunn, of Bondurant, announced Thursday that DeSantis and Iowa Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst will join him as special guests at his inaugural annual fundraiser event, “Operation Top Nunn: Salute to the Troops,” July 15 at the Ankeny Regional Airport.
Tickets and more information are available at bit.ly/43ryZtO.
A portion ticket sales will go to Salute to the Fallen, an Iowa veterans organization that supports veteran mental health and preventing veteran suicide.
Nunn served as an airborne intelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force, and deployed three times to the Middle East.
DeSantis served in Iraq and at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention camp as a Navy lawyer, including as legal counsel to a SEAL commander during the 2007 surge of U.S. troops in Iraq. Ernst commanded National Guard troops in Iraq and is the first female combat veteran to serve in the U.S. Senate.
“As veterans who both served our nation in uniform overseas in the Middle East, Zach and I share a profound appreciation for the sacrifices our military service members and families make for our country,” DeSantis said in a statement. “I applaud Zach’s efforts to celebrate our heroes — and I can’t wait to return to Iowa to celebrate them with him.”
DeSantis was last in Iowa June 3 for Ernst’s annual "Roast and Ride“ political fundraiser at the Iowa State Fairgrounds.
He’ll be back in Iowa July 14 — the day before Nunn’s fundraiser — for the Family Leadership Summit in Des Moines hosted by the Christian conservative group The Family Leader.
DeSantis will be interviewed with TV personality and conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson, who was fired by Fox News in April in the aftermath of a $787.5 million settlement between Fox and Dominion Voting Systems, which sued for defamation over the broadcast of former President Donald Trump’s lies about fraud in the 2020 election.
The former Fox News host has since launched a new Twitter-based version of his old show.
Pro-Pence super PAC releases Iowa ad
Committed to America, a super PAC supporting former Vice President Mike Pence’s 2024 GOP presidential bid, released its first ad in Iowa on Thursday.
The minute-long ad highlights Pence's role in certifying the 2020 presidential election results, despite pressure from then-President Trump to reject those results and remand them to the states for further review in an effort to overturn the election.
The ad includes footage of a mob of pro-Trump supporters storming the U.S. Capitol and images of rioters standing around a makeshift gallows erected in front of the Capitol, some of whom chanted threats for Pence to be hanged.
“A president begging him to ignore the Constitution,” a narrator says to footage of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
“A mob shouting for him to die. And an anxious nation watching for one man to do what’s right,” narrator says. “A weak man appeases a mob; a man of courage and character stands up to them. That day, one man failed the test of leadership while another stood tall.
“And since then, this so-called leader has continued to abandon our conservative principles. Now, with a woke mob trying to take away our freedom, we need a president who won’t flinch, who won’t try to cut deals with our values.”
The ad is part of a $250,000 statewide cable and digital buy in Iowa, according to a news release.
“This is the first phase of an aggressive campaign in Iowa, where the organization has already launched an extensive, data-driven voter contact operation,” according to the super PAC.
Pence formally launched his bid for the White House Wednesday at a campaign event in Ankeny.
Tim Scott to host Pella town hall, airs new Iowa ads
South Carolina U.S. Sen. Tim Scott will host a town hall June 14 in Pella with Iowa caucusgoers.
Scott’s campaign released another round of ads in Iowa this week.
In the ads, Scott decries what he sees as a national obsession with victimhood.
“Today’s kids are growing up immersed in a culture where everyone’s a victim,” Scott says in one of the ads. “We have to start teaching the necessity of individual responsibility. If you are able-bodied, you work. If you take out a loan, you pay it back. If you commit a violent crime, you go to jail.”
In the other, Scott says: “And if you’re a man, you should play sports against men. America needs more victors and less victims.”
Scott was also in Des Moines last week for Joni's Roast and Ride and events in Council Bluffs, where he shared his message of “faith and optimism anchored in conservatism.”
Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau
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