GOP nominee Ron DeSantis was met with a large number of empty seats at a meet and greet event in Iowa, photos shared online have revealed.
The Florida Governor hoped to resurrect his flagging campaign at a number of events across the Hawkeye State this weekend.
DeSantis visited Cedar Falls before he ate breakfast at the Vinton Family Restaurant before heading to a meet and greet at a livestock auction in Tama.
But a viral photo shared on social media showed a small turnout for DeSantis’ event in Tama.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks to guests at the Republican Party of Iowa 2023 Lincoln Dinner in Des Moines, Iowa, on July 28, 2023. DeSantis was met with a large number of empty seats at a meet and greet event in Iowa on August 5, photos shared online have revealed.
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Tim Miller, writer at media outlet The Bulwark, shared an image on X, formerly known as Twitter, of what appeared to be a sparse crowd at Spanky’s Livestock Auction on Saturday.
Since being shared on August 5, the post has been viewed more than 935,600 times on the social media platform.
The image showed a few dozen people sitting on benches at the auction, with most of the venue empty.
Miller did add a caveat in a follow-up tweet, which read: “Fwiw (for what it’s worth) DeSantis is doing a bunch of events this weekend, and not all have been this sparse.
“This is the reality when you reboot and have to do the grind it out, lots of small events Let Ron Be Ron deal.”
But the photo soon attracted derision from the campaign spokesman of DeSantis’ staunch rival Donald Trump.
Trump political advisor Steven Cheung mocked the Florida Governor over the apparent small turnout at the event, saying in an X post: “Tiny crowd for Ron DeSantis in a livestock auction venue. Nobody is buying what that heifer is selling.”
His comment has been viewed by nearly 95,000 people since being shared on the social media platform on August 5.
Trump himself berated DeSantis on his social media platform Truth Social, where he highlighted that 10 people were watching online during a DeSantis meet and greet in Cedar Falls, adding: “Wow.”
DeSantis hoped to reboot his campaign following numerous controversies, including Florida’s new Black history curriculum, which proposes that middle schoolers be taught that slaves learned some skills that could be used for “personal benefit.”
It was slammed by Republican South Carolina Senator and GOP nominee Tim Scott, as well as former GOP staffer Tara Setmayer.
DeSantis’ team also fired communications staffer Nate Hochman after he allegedly retweeted a meme video that featured the white supremacist black sun symbol.
Despite DeSantis’ hopes for a campaign reboot boost, Trump leads every national poll seen by Newsweek carried out between July 22 and August 3.
According to polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight, as of August 3, Trump leads his rival with 53.3 percent support—far ahead of DeSantis on 14.3 percent.
The percentages are based on the responses of thousands of U.S.-based adults who were asked about their favorite candidate over the past two weeks.
Newsweek has contacted the DeSantis office for comment via email.
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