All seven presidential candidates who spoke at Sunday’s fundraiser for Congresswoman Ashley Hinson got a standing ovation from the crowd of 800.
Hinson began the event by saying Republicans are not going to sit on the sidelines in 2024. “It’s time to fire Joe Biden and remember this: Iowa picks presidents!” Hinson said, to cheer s and applause. “Let’s go get it done.”
Former President Trump was not at the event and his name was barely mentioned. No one who took the stage directly referred to the federal indictment filed against Trump last week, but Hinson and several candidates blasted the FBI and the Department of Justice in general. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis promises to appoint a new FBI director and overhaul the Department of Justice.
“There’s going to be a single standard of justice in this country again,” DeSantis said, “and we are going to stop the weaponization of federal power.”
Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy promises to shut down five federal agencies, including the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “There are government agencies that should not exist,” Ramaswamy said, “that have become so corrupted that they have lost their original purpose.”
Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, a former federal prosecutor, was director of the Drug Enforcement Agency during the George W. Bush Administration. He has proposed reforms to the FBI, but not its closure. “We are a party that believes in our justice system,” Hutchinson said, “but we want it to work fairly and we want it to work rightly for the people of our country.”
Michigan businessman Perry Johnson repeated his call for Trump to be pardoned.
North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum used his time on stage to focus on the economy, energy policy and national security. Burgum told the crowd nothing is more important than having people engaged in the political process. “Iowa, the first in the nation caucus, the job that you all have,” Burgum said, “you’re screening candidates for the most important job in the world.”
Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who served as Trump’s Ambassador to the United Nations, told the crowd they “know all the answers” to the country’s top domestic problems, so she focused her comments on national security issues that Haley said are being ignored. “China has been planning war with the United States for years. That’s not overdramatizing,” Haley said. “This is the biggest threat we’ve had since Pearl Harbor.”
Former radio talk show host Larry Elder called on the GOP to focus on improving the country’s education system and the problems caused by absent fathers.
Mike and Cora Engelken of Cedar Rapids were impressed by all seven candidates, but are undecided in the presidential race at this point. “It’s really going to be tough when the Caucuses happen to say, ‘How do you pick?’ because they’re all got some really valid points. They’re all good speakers, so we enjoy this,” Mike Engelken said.
Cora Engelken added: “I’m confused now because they’d get up there and give a speech and you’d say: ‘Oh yeah! That’s great!’ And then there’s the next one. ‘Oh yeah! That’s great!'”
The couple will vote for Trump if he is the Republican Party’s nominee in 2024, but they’re hoping some of the candidates who’re are lagging in the polls drop out so an alternative to Trump can emerge in the Iowa Caucuses.
“I think it’s time to move on and get all this deep state stuff behind us,” Mike Engelken said and Cora Engelken continued: “I was thinking as all these people were speaking how they all had good, positive messages, whereas Trump can’t move past that. Leave that behind. It’s done and over with and nothing’s going to change.”
Suzie Wheeler of Iowa City voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, but she, too, is evaluating the other candidates for 2024. “I think he’s got too much baggage,” Wheeler said of Trump.
Tyler Raygor, deputy state director of Americans for Prosperity, said his group will endorse a candidate before the Caucuses and it will not be Trump. Raygor said the legal woes Trump faces aren’t dampening enthusiasm for the 2024 race among the Iowans his group is surveying. “They’re not tired. They’re not worn out,” Raygor said. “What they are tired of is the bad policies that are affecting inflation and their ability to live.”
Travis Klinefelter of Dubuque is “100 percent” going to back Trump in 2024 and is unconcerned about any Trump challenges or challengers. “He can handle it,” Klinefelter said. “Politics is a dirty sport.”