Trump to ramp up Iowa campaign schedule in coming weeks

DES MOINES — Donald Trump’s campaign in Iowa is about to move into a new gear, with a handful of trips here planned over the next seven weeks, according to his campaign.

Former President Trump’s campaign schedule in Iowa thus far has been modest, especially when compared to other Republican presidential candidates who have campaigned relentlessly in the first-in-the-nation caucus state. But that is about to change, Trump’s campaign staff said Wednesday.

Trump will make five trips to Iowa through the rest of September and October, his campaign said, starting with events Sept. 20 in Eastern Iowa . That trip will include a “Team Trump Caucus Commitment” organizing event with campaign volunteers at the Jackson County Fairgrounds in Maquoketa, and remarks at the Grand River Conference Center in Dubuque.

Trump has made seven trip to Iowa thus far in 2023, most recently to the Iowa State Fair in August and this past week to the Iowa vs. Iowa State college football game in Ames.

After the trip to Maquoketa and Dubuque, Trump will return to Iowa on the following dates, according to his campaign:

The locations for those events still are being finalized, but will be held in different regions throughout the state, the Trump campaign said.

“Polling shows President Trump leading by nearly 40 points, but as he always tells us, ‘Put the pedal to the metal.’ We don’t play prevent defense, and his aggressive upcoming schedule reflects President Trump’s continued commitment to earning support in Iowa one voter at a time,” Alex Latcham, the Trump campaign’s director for early voting states, said in a statement.

While the commitment to five more events in Iowa over the next seven weeks represents an increased pace for the Trump campaign, it remains well off the pace of some of Trump’s fellow Republican White House hopefuls. Candidates like Mike Pence and Vivek Ramaswamy, for example, have held more than four dozen events in Iowa this year, according to the Des Moines Register’s candidate tracker.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the next-highest polling candidate in the Republican presidential primary, has appeared at roughly 36 events in Iowa, according to the Register’s tracker.

Still, Trump has been the consistent polling leader in the Republican presidential primary by wide margins, both nationally and in Iowa.

Trump enjoys a hefty lead of 40 percentage points over DeSantis and the rest of the field in Real Clear Politics’ rolling average of national Republican presidential primary polls. In Iowa, Trump lead DeSantis and the field by 23 points in the first Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll of the cycle, which was published in August; and by 37 points in an Iowa State University/Civiqs poll, published last week.

Trump’s upcoming trips to Iowa, his campaign said, will include events that focus on organizing for the Iowa Republican caucuses, which are scheduled for Jan. 15. At those organizing events, the Trump campaign will identify supporters and train those who are unfamiliar with the caucuses how to participate in them, and encourage caucus veterans to volunteer to speak on the Trump campaign’s behalf at the Jan. 15 caucuses.

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