Free Republic

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis completed his tour of Iowa’s 99 counties on Saturday, a milestone he pursued with dogmatic zeal as his White House aspirations grew closely tied to his performance in the Republican Party’s first presidential nominating contest. DeSantis marked the occasion with a rally in Jasper County, just east of Des Moines at a venue called the Thunderdome – a fitting host for a candidate in a fight for political survival. Never Back Down has spent more than any other entity on advertising in Iowa and is building out a ground operation it insists is “historic” in its...

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...

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.

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,...

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.

Bob Vander Plaats, an influential evangelical leader in Iowa, is widely expected to endorse Ron DeSantis in the presidential primary. But now, with Donald Trump dominating the field, he is poised to back a candidate who is running 30 points behind the frontrunner here — testing not only the clout of his own endorsement, but the willingness of evangelicals to abandon Trump. Earlier this week, CBS reported that DeSantis told fundraisers he expects Vander Plaats’ endorsement within a week of the summit, which the DeSantis campaign denied.

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...

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...

The latest person to find themselves in the crosshairs of Donald Trump’s twitter act is prominent Iowa evangelical Bob Vander Plaats. The specific accusation that Trump leveled against Vander Plaats is that Vander Plaats asked for $100K to arrange for Trump to come speak at an Iowa event that he, generously, was willing to do. Vander Plaats’ response was that it was Trump, in fact, who was paid the massive speaking fee, and that he (Vander Plaats) got nothing.As you find more often than not when Trump calls someone else a liar, the facts demonstrate that in fact it is...

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...

HOUSTON, Texas - The Cruz for President campaign announced Bob Vander Plaats as National Co-Chair for Cruz. Vander Plaats, who previously endorsed Cruz last month, is the President and CEO of The FAMiLY LEADER and an influential conservative and evangelical leader. Vander Plaats has been with Cruz on the road in Iowa this week during the "Cruzin' for Caucus" Iowa bus tour, hitting 28 counties in six days."The courageous and fearless leader we need during these difficult times facing our nation is Ted Cruz," said Vander Plaats. "Our goal is to unite conservatives around a strong and consistent leader and...

Influential Conservatives Rallying to Defend CruzHOUSTON, Texas - Today, the New York Times reported that Senator Marco Rubio's false attacks on Ted Cruz's immigration record are beginning to backfire as "influential conservatives are now rallying to Mr. Cruz's side and denouncing Mr. Rubio."New York Times Highlights Conservative Ire Over Rubio Attacks "Senator Marco Rubio made a big bet on an immigration overhaul that failed - and he has been running away from it since. Now his past is catching up with him, stoking old grievances from conservative rivals who are reopening one of the most vulnerable episodes in his past."The...

Since the day he announced his candidacy, Texas Senator Ted Cruz has been making the case that he's the conservative candidate who can win the Republican nomination. It doesn't matter if he is speaking to a group of homeschool kids and their parents, Cruz closes by telling his audience about how much money his campaign has raised and that he is positioned to win. Now as we enter the final phase of the 2016 caucus campaign, Cruz has a handful of prominent Iowa endorsements to go along with all of his campaign cash. The big three statewide Republican elected officials,...

The Texas senator's campaign is beginning to see returns after months of methodically courting evangelical leaders.Ted Cruz increasingly looks like the man to beat in Iowa. He's rising in the polls, building on an already extensive field organization and locking down critical conservative endorsements.Among the biggest yet came Thursday, when Bob Vander Plaats, the head of the conservative group Family Leader, came out for Cruz, citing what he sees as electability in Iowa and nationally. "This is a guy that's been very consistent in principles, in communications, and his campaign has shown ability to slowly gain ground and build momentum,...

The President and CEO of the FAMiLY LEADER is joined by Robert Cramer and Chuck HurleyHOUSTON, Texas — Bob Vander Plaats, President and CEO of the FAMiLY LEADER, today announced his endorsement of Ted Cruz for President. The influential conservative leader, who has lent his support to the last two winners of the Iowa Caucus, is considered by many to be a key endorsement amongst Iowa Caucus goers, particularly with evangelicals and strong conservatives.Bob Vander Plaats Endorses Ted Cruz for President (Video)According to Vander Plaats, "Today is the culmination of a months long process that was deliberative, intensive, and covered...

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz takes questions after The Family Leader's Presidential Family Forum on Nov. 20, 2015, in Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo by Patrick Svitek) Iowa evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats on Thursday endorsed Ted Cruz for president, giving the Texas senator's campaign one of its biggest boosts yet in the first-in-the-country caucus state. "At the end of the day, we truly believe that Ted Cruz is the most consistent and principled conservative who has the ability to not only win Iowa but I believe to win the [Republican] nomination," Vander Plaats told the Des Moines Register in an interview...

Bob Vander Plaats, the CEO of the social conservative group the Family Leader, endorsed Ted Cruz's presidential candidacy. A "kingmaker" of sorts in Iowa, Vander Plaats endorsed Mike Huckabee in 2008 and backed Rick Santorum in 2012. When the Washington Examiner spoke with Vander Plaats earlier this year, he said it would be easy for conservatives to divide their support among several quality candidates and he would wait until the Thanksgiving holiday to make a decision. On Thursday, Vander Plaats made clear he believes the best candidate is Cruz. Cruz has racked up endorsements from several influential conservatives in the...