Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis bet his presidential aspirations on a strong finish in the Iowa caucuses. After Monday night, his future is in significant jeopardy.
With 95% of the expected votes in, DeSantis does not lead in a single of the state's 99 counties. Instead, his biggest feat of the night is holding onto second place in the face of former UN ambassador Nikki Haley's stiff challenge.
Neither Haley nor DeSantis are anywhere near former President Donald Trump's 51% showing in the caucuses, and the ex-president is on pace to pull off the largest blowout in a competitive Iowa Republican caucus in recent memory.
DeSantis and his allied super PACs expended significant resources on competing in Iowa. The Florida governor visited all of the state's 99 counties before the caucuses, a feat named after veteran Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley. Iowans traditionally reward presidential hopefuls who engage in such a long slog of campaigning. DeSantis also wielded major endorsements, including from Gov. Kim Reynolds and key evangelical leaders like Bob Vander Plaats.
None of that support appears to have made a difference.
Now, Trump has handily won Iowa despite having put in nowhere near the same effort DeSantis and his allies did. The former president even repeatedly attacked Reynolds, a governor who is beloved by many Republicans in the state. None of it mattered.
It wasn't supposed to be this way. DeSantis' main allied super PAC, Never Back Down, made a big early show of boasting how it would place a major focus on Super Tuesday states. The Florida governor was once within striking distance in extremely early national polling.
But DeSantis has faced an incredibly disciplined Trump campaign, with allies of the former president in influential state Republican parties who tweaked delegate rules to benefit the ex-commander-in-chief over the Florida governor.
As Trump's legal issues mounted, with the former president now facing 91 criminal charges, he gained popularity among base Republicans. And DeSantis and Haley have largely sought to avoid engaging with Trump on those issues, taking a line of attack off the table.
DeSantis wanted Iowa to be the state where he put his mark on the race; even with his second-place finish, he'll now have to fight even harder to remain viable. Haley has focused much of her campaign on New Hampshire, where she's surged since the fall, while DeSantis — who at one time actually led Trump in the state in polling among likely GOP voters — is now mired in the single digits there.
Now, DeSantis' path forward is murkier than ever.
