The annual Lincoln Dinner in Iowa is not something any Republican presidential candidate wants to miss — not even former President Donald Trump. He was joined by 12 other candidates Friday night.
IPR’s Clay Masters was there and talked to IPR's Michael Leland about the night.
Michael Leland: Trump hasn’t spent as much time in Iowa as some other candidates this cycle. Was it noteworthy that Trump was there?
Clay Masters: It was and it’s a high profile public appearance at the same time he’s facing mounting legal questions. That’s clearly on his mind as he went a little off script during his prepared remarks.
“By the way if I weren’t running, I would have nobody coming after me," Trump said. "Or if I was losing by a lot I would have nobody coming after me.”
He said that, of course, just as new charges came this week in a federal case accusing him of illegally possessing classified documents. But in Iowa on Friday, it was generally less about indictments and more about connecting with voters. The former president has been running here like he’s already the nominee. He has not been appearing at these events that feature multiple presidential candidates like Sen. Joni Ernst's Roast and Ride or the Family Leadership Summit.
That’s largely because he has to play by the rules like everyone else. Like last night — each address had to remain at just 10 minutes, and Trump had to condense his typical long, meandering speech into that packed format. So he focused on what he called the achievements of his first term in office —from appointing justices to the Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade to touting the farm subsidies he doled out during his administration. And that’s how he’s trying to remind Republican Iowa voters that he’s their man in 2024. He continues to enjoy a lot of [Republican] support here.
Knowing that, how did the audience respond to Trump and to the other candidates who shared the stage with him?
Early on you could hear the clinking of silverware on plates of chicken and mashed potatoes in the ballroom of over a thousand people. So it was a dinner and people were clearly focused on that part of the night. But politics was also on the menu. Mindy Ginger was there to see Trump and said she’d listen to what the others had to say. But she wants Trump back in office and was visibly frustrated by the mounting indictments.
“I’m so sick and tired of all the crap they’re doing to him right now," Ginger said. "There is absolutely nobody that could go through what he’s gone through and his family. Everyone else would have buckled like a cheap suit.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is seen as Trump's main rival, went early on in the program and stuck his normal stump speech, talking about laws he’s passed in Florida like an abortion ban. Most of the candidates are still introducing themselves, like former Texas Congressman Will Hurd. He’s far from a household name and was not met with fanfare when he said this:
"Donald Trump is not running for president to represent the people who voted for him in 2016 and 2020. Donald Trump is running to stay out of prison," Hurd said to loud boos from the audience.
Hurd said nominating Trump guarantees another term for Biden, and that was one of the only — at least the most direct — attack on Trump the whole night. The other candidates, including Ron DeSantis, avoided calling Trump out. Trump went last in these back-to-back speeches and that meant he had the final word of the night.
This comes as a new NPR poll shows those mounting legal challenges against Trump may be starting to take a toll. Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who say they believe he has done "nothing wrong" dropped 9 points in the last month. Does that maybe give one of these other candidates a path to the nomination?
Right, well afterwards there were meet and greets with the candidates, so people could shake hands and take selfies. I used that as an opportunity to take an informal straw poll, and judging from the number of people waiting to meet the candidates… Trump’s doing just fine. There were also lines to see DeSantis and Vivek Rammaswammy. While not very many people were sticking around by comparison to see former Vice President Mike Pence. So, anecdotally, Trump still has Iowa Republicans' support, but he’s still going to have to campaign here. Iowans reward politicians for showing up in all 99 counties and most everyone on that stage vowed to spend a lot of time here between now and Jan. 15 when the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses will take place.
