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DEVELOPING🚨: Ron DeSantis has asked Bob VanderPlaats, Steve Deace, and Kim Reynolds to go on the campaign trail with him in New Hampshire after results of a Monmouth University poll came out showing him in fifth place.

This is the second lopsided poll of Hawkeye State Republicans this week. Ron DeSantis keeps saying he’s “sick” of the polls lately, but a new Iowa survey probably won’t let the healing begin. On the heels of a poll showing Donald Trump with a 32-point lead over the Florida Governor ahead of the Jan. 15 caucuses, a new Civiqs-conducted survey from Iowa State University shows an even bigger lead for the former President, with 54% of the 438 respondents saying they would caucus for Trump. DeSantis is the choice of 17% of those polled, actually losing a point since the...

DES MOINES, Iowa — A new poll is offering more insight into how Republican candidates are faring in Iowa with just five weeks left until the Iowa caucuses. For the first time during this campaign, support for Donald Trump jumped above 50%. The poll from the Des Moines Register, NBC News and Mediacom shows 51% of likely caucusgoers have Trump as their first choice for president. Ron DeSantis pulled out ahead of Nikki Haley with 19% support. Haley has 16%.

Vander Plaats, CEO of the Iowa-based Christian conservative group The Family Leader, told the Blaze’s Steve Deace this week that he’s never supported Trump, after the former president went on the attack. “Iowa will rise up,” he continued. “This is not leadership our country needs.” “Bob Vander Plaats, the former High School Accountant from Iowa, will do anything to win, something which he hasn’t done in many years,” Trump wrote over the weekend. “He’s more known for scamming Candidates than he is for Victory, but now he’s going around using Disinformation from the Champions of that Art, the Democrats,” he...

Influential Iowa evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the 2024 Republican primary race last week, and former President Donald Trump wasn’t happy. Vander Platts, who reportedly voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, responded equally fiercely on X, formerly Twitter. In one post, Vander Plaats said Iowa “will exhibit higher standards when they choose @RonDeSantis over a Chump.” Just returned from an Iowa stronghold for @realDonaldTrump Person to Person told me they are done with him. While they long to leave the topic of ‘golden showers’ and return to the discussion of gold standards,The final...

A top evangelical leader in Iowa, Bob Vander Plaats, confirmed Tuesday that his organization received $95,000 from what Reuters originally described as the “DeSantis campaign, a super PAC linked to him and a nonprofit group” before he endorsed the governor’s presidential election.Fox News’s Bret Baier questioned Vander Plaats on the report, which asserts that Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) campaign and groups associated with him gave a total of $95,000 to the nonprofit, the Family Leader Foundation, which Vander Plaats heads up. At the time, Reuters pointed to campaign finance reports “and a document prepared by an Iowa state lawmaker who...

Bob Vander Plaats, a prominent Iowa Christian evangelical leader, announced his endorsement of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president on Tuesday. Vander Plaats, the CEO and president of the Family Leader conservative group, argued that DeSantis, 45, is the best chance Republicans have at winning the 2024 general election and said his endorsement shouldn’t come as a surprise. “I think America would be well served to have a choice, and I really believe Ron DeSantis is that guy and I think Iowa’s tailor-made for him to win this,” he added.

By ABC News December 23, 2011 ABC News' Shushannah Walshe and Michael Falcone report: DAVENPORT, Iowa - An Iowa Christian conservative leader who bestowed his highly sought-after endorsement on presidential candidate Rick Santorum this week is now at the center of a controversy over whether he asked for cash in exchange for his public support. Less than 48-hours after receiving the backing of Bob Vander Plaats, the head of the prominent evangelical group The Family Leader, Santorum disclosed that the prominent Iowan told him he needed money to make the most out of the endorsement. And sources familiar with talks...

Then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump railed against “so-called Christians” and “pieces of s—” evangelicals who supported Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in the 2016 Iowa caucuses, according to a forthcoming book. At the time, allies of Cruz had been making hay of Trump’s flub before an audience at Virginia’s Liberty University, a conservative evangelical college, in which he botched a question about his favorite Bible verse and replied that it came from the book of “Two Corinthians,” rather than “Second Corinthians.” “The laughter and ridicule were embarrassing enough for Trump,” Tim Alberta writes in his new book, “The Kingdom, the Power,...

The DeSantis campaign, a super PAC linked to him and a nonprofit group supporting him together paid $95,000 in recent months to the Family Leader Foundation, an Iowa-based nonprofit led by evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats, according to campaign finance reports and a document prepared by an Iowa state lawmaker who was helping the Vander Plaats organization raise money for a July 14 presidential candidate forum.

Chris Jankowski, the CEO of the PAC that has been footing the bill for much of DeSantis' bus travel around key battleground states, stepped down Wednesday, days after a group of other DeSantis allies announced the creation of a separate PAC, called Fight Right Inc. The move follows an account of vicious infighting between factions of DeSantis backers, NBC reported. Jeff Roe, the leading consultant for Never Back Down, reportedly got into a 'heated' argument with DeSantis advisor Scott Wagner during a budget meeting. a source told the network, in a stunning account of how the two men 'nearly came...

Bob Vander Plaats, an influential evangelical leader in Iowa, endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday, giving his campaign a boost as he goes all in to try to win the first state in the presidential primary cycle. "You need a president who's gonna surround themselves with the best and brightest people versus having a hard time attracting them again. And someone who's actually going to do what they say they're going to do. And I just think he's got the spine to do it. And I think he's got the experience to win for us," Vander Plaats said on...

Three candidates — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy — sat down for a roundtable “family discussion” in Des Moines Friday. Trump did not attend, though he was invited. The candidates shared their personal stories in an unusual forum, as they have rarely appeared side-by-side in such a collegial setting on the campaign trail. The Family Leader reiterated that the event was not a debate after the Republican National Committee’s counsel’s office circulated a letter to campaigns dated Oct. 28 reminding candidates of their pledge not to participate in non-sanctioned debates and...

The Republican National Committee (RNC) threatened to prevent GOP presidential candidates from taking part in future party-sanctioned debates if they engaged in an open-press event in Iowa next week, drawing backlash from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Prior to the agreement over the format of the forum, in an Oct. 28 letter to the respective presidential campaigns the RNC Counsel's Office said that any candidate who participates in the Nov. 17 Des Moines event would violate their pledge to not participate in non-RNC-sanctioned primary debates. "The Forum is NOT a debate," he wrote in a post to X. "Thus, the RNC...

A leading Iowa Evangelical activist believes that the critical state caucuses are "tailor-made" for an upset with a Republican field that is "wide-open," saying that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has run a strong ground game as former President Donald Trump dominates the polls.As Republican presidential hopefuls focus on wooing conservatives in Iowa, Bob Vander Plaats, the president of the Iowa-based advocacy group The FAMiLY Leader, discussed the state of the race in The Hawkeye State in an interview with The Christian Post.Vander Plaats takes an active role in the primary campaign by interacting with the candidates and hosting the FAMiLY...

Pete Buttigieg and Cory Booker are turning down an invitation to an Iowa conservative Christian group’s summit, joining Beto O’Rourke, who had previously said he wouldn’t attend. Bob Vander Plaats, an influential social conservative leader in Iowa who runs the group The Family Leader, had told NBC News previously that he was inviting the Democratic candidates for president to have a discussion around faith and unity in July. The invitation, he said, comes as a number of Democrats this year have been speaking about their faith on the campaign trail. But Booker, the New Jersey senator, tweeted Monday that although...

A top conservative leader criticized former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) for tweeting out a picture of gang members, saying they were House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) “campaign committee.” Bob Vander Plaats, the president and CEO of Iowan conservative group The Family Leader, chastised the former governor on Saturday. “Where did my friend and pastor @GovMikeHuckabee go?” Vander Plaats tweeted. “I want him back. I’ll assume someone hijacked his twitter account.” “He’s way better than this!” He added. Vander Plaats was responding to a tweet from Huckabee on Saturday appearing to link Pelosi with gang members. “Nancy Pelosi introduces...

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump unleashed a slew of Twitter attacks on Iowa evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats Sunday morning, the second time he has done so in less than a week. Trump says that Vander Plaats, head of the Iowa-based Family Leader, asked him to stay in his hotels for free and also requested he speak at an event while seeking $100,000 for himself. He made the same statements on Tuesday in a similar Twitter storm. At that time, Vander Plaats said he and his family stayed for free in Trump's hotels because Trump insisted he do so in...

Real estate mogul and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attacked Bob Vander Plaats, President/CEO of The FAMiLY Leader this morning on Twitter. Vander Plaats last month endorsed U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) for President.He started off quoting his Twitter follower’s tweets about an interview that Vander Plaats had on CNN as a surrogate for Cruz: "@xXFlame: .@bobvanderplaats Idiot Bob Plaats on CNN is DELUDED! Cruz's favorability ratings are 0%, NO ONE LIKES HIM. VOTE TRUMP INSTEAD!"— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2016 "@AynsFriend: @bobvanderplaats CRUZ IS DONE @CNN @ChrisCuomo"— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2016 "@puttster71: @bobvanderplaats The...

From the Eventbrite website: Only a few days left until the caucuses! Let's get fired up! Join Glenn Beck, special guest Senator Ted Cruz, Congressman Steve King, Bob Vander Plaats, and David Barton for this inspiring campaign rally! Doors open at 6:00 PM. This is a FREE event with limited space...Tickets are required for entry. WHEN Saturday, January 23, 2016 from 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM (CST) - WHERE Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center - 205 W 4th Street Waterloo, Iowa 50701