Trump to be accompanied by Florida Republicans in Iowa amid dueling visit with DeSantis

Former President Trump is set to be accompanied by nine Florida Republicans who have endorsed him over their home state governor and Republican presidential hopeful, Ron DeSantis, at the Iowa State Fair this weekend.

Florida Reps. Gus Bilirakis, Byron Donalds, Matt Gaetz, Carlos Gimenez, Anna Paulina Luna, Brian Mast, Cory Mills, Greg Steube and Mike Waltz will join the former president Saturday at the event in the key early voting state, where both he and DeSantis are set to make appearances, the Trump campaign confirmed to The Hill.

The Des Moines Register was the first to report the attendance of the GOP members from the Sunshine State.

The dueling appearances from Trump and DeSantis come as the Florida governor has attempted to reboot his struggling campaign, which has so far failed to gain substantial traction in the polls.

A New York Times/Siena College poll released last week showed DeSantis, who is widely considered the former president’s biggest competition for the Republican nomination, trailing Trump by 37 points among GOP primary voters nationwide.   

However, the Florida governor is slightly more popular with Republicans in the Hawkeye State, where he trails the former president by 24 points among likely caucusgoers, another New York Times poll found.