IN THE FLESH — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced his campaign for president on Twitter. But since he’s launched, he’s been dotting around key early Republican primary states — Iowa, New Hampshire and today South Carolina — in the flesh, delivering his stump speech in town halls and restaurants and talking (sometimes) to voters. Much has been made of his preference for existing inside a protective cocoon, limiting media availability to friendly publications. That early isolation has invited heightened media scrutiny of his every move, which has led his small cadre of trusted advisors to consider opening up the campaign’s tight-lipped, adversarial media strategy. The early returns from voter events across the country suggest that he’s splitting the difference. Mostly, he grants interviews to right-wing outlets and doesn’t take audience questions at events (though today, he took one: “How did you and your wife meet?”), but he’s also doing a healthy amount of glad handing after his prepared remarks. These appearances have also suggested a mutability on key questions like support for an abortion ban, with his prepared remarks changing slightly based on the audience. To get a sense of where the fascinating early primary campaign of one of the Republican frontrunners is headed — and to hear some first-hand impressions — Nightly spoke with three POLITICO reporters who spent this week on the trail with DeSantis: Lisa Kashinsky, Natalie Allison and Sally Goldenberg. This interview has been edited. The knock on DeSantis is that he operates in a protective cocoon and can't or won't do retail politics. How accurate is that criticism? Kashinsky: I’ve covered three DeSantis events in New Hampshire recently and over the past couple months and he’s glad-handed at each of them, taking selfies, signing photos, the works. He even kissed a lawmaker’s baby at a roundtable last month. But he’s not taking questions from voters on the stump, which is a campaigning staple in New Hampshire and something several of his rivals — former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, about-to-launch former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — are doing. We heard complaints about that yesterday in New Hampshire. One Republican woman I spoke to even had a question typed out in the Notes app on her iPhone about what changes DeSantis would make to the FBI beyond bringing in a new director — but she didn’t get to ask it, and she was disappointed about that. Voters in New Hampshire expect — if not require — that type of interaction from candidates and will look elsewhere if they don’t get it. Allison: Part of the reason DeSantis’ trip to Iowa a few weeks ago was seen as such a success was because he made a point to retail the hell out of it. Shook hands and went around the room at his events, stopped at Pizza Ranch, and then the cherry on top was an impromptu flight back to Des Moines that night to visit with supporters at Jethro’s BBQ. He and Casey [DeSantis, the governor’s wife] stood on a picnic table outside and said a few words to the packed patio in between shaking hands and taking selfies. He did that to rub salt in the wound of Trump’s canceled rally that night over weather concerns, but it solidified the idea that DeSantis, despite being seen as avoiding retail politics much of the time in Florida, is in fact capable of that type of campaigning. And of course, he has since done more of that during his return to Iowa and other early states. To the degree the criticism is true that he struggled to get out of his shell and connect with voters — and it seems like it was — he has quickly worked to prove otherwise. Goldenberg: Having covered a few pre-campaign events of DeSantis’ before his launch, and a few more in N.H. and S.C. over the last week, what I’ve observed is a politician who is more comfortable and animated delivering a speech and laying out the stakes of the election in an oppositional manner (the “woke left” and “legacy media” and DC “elites” being that opposition) than schmoozing with crowds. That’s not to say he doesn’t do it — he does, to a point. But retail politics doesn’t seem to come naturally to him. He’s an intellectual and a brawler, not so much an empath or a glad-hander in the style of Bill Clinton or Chris Christie. He taps into frustration and anger with more ease than he engages in friendly banter. And he barely takes town hall- style audience questions. He took one today at a midday stop in South Carolina. The audience member asked how he met his wife. He and his wife answered it at length and then left the stage to greet and take photos with people in the crowd before leaving. Much has been made about his antagonistic relationship with the press. What was the media presence like at his events and what were his interactions with the press like? Kashinsky: DeSantis didn’t take questions from reporters at the events I’ve covered. But in between stops in New Hampshire on Thursday he did interviews with friendly and local media — the NHJournal and Fox News’ New Hampshire-based political reporter Paul Steinhauser. He was also on the “Good Morning NH” radio show with Jack Heath. Allison: Whereas Trump on Thursday in Urbandale [Iowa] waltzed into the Machine Shed restaurant and almost immediately turned to the cameras, smirked and acknowledged the “fake news,” DeSantis mostly went about doing his own thing in Iowa. He threw in some references into his stump speech about the news media and his claim that his policies on any number of issues anger the mainstream press, but he wasn’t directing his supporters to boo or the types of things we’ve seen from Trump. He tried out a new thing Tuesday night after his event and did a presser, though he only called on reporters from a list presumably given to him by his staff — and none of the questions were particularly difficult, although we did get to hear a bit more from him than just his stump speech. Goldenberg: A consistent part of his stump speech is attacking the “corporate” and “legacy” press for, in his view, beating him up unfairly over his Covid policies, siding with Disney in his war with the massive company, and propping up the “woke left” while lacking a genuine understanding of everyday Americans who, in his view, make up his base. (They may; we’ll see.) It seems like his anti-press posture is a bit more real than Trump’s. What did you learn about him that you didn't know? Kashinsky: DeSantis doesn’t want to talk about abortion, at least not in New Hampshire, where polling shows the majority of voters identify as “pro-choice” and believe the Supreme Court erred in overturning Roe v. Wade. He spoke of the six-week ban he signed into law in Florida while he was in Iowa. But he didn’t mention it once in the four stops he had in New Hampshire on Thursday — a state that allows abortions up to 24 weeks of pregnancy and in limited cases after. Removing the line from his stump speech in New Hampshire nods at the state’s more moderate and libertarian politics, and its open primaries. If DeSantis wants to win the first-in-the-nation primary, he’ll have to appeal not just to Republicans, but independents who skew more centrist. Allison: I thought DeSantis talking about his home life, in detail, was fascinating. We’ve heard Casey mention previously that he’s such a “great dad” and devoted to tucking in his children at night and what not, but this week was the first time I had ever heard him discuss doing normal things with his kids. Taking them through the drive-thru. Explaining how not to cheer for the other team at a football game. And, of course, trying to get his 3-year-old to use a public bathroom. Those are the types of “I’m just like you” stories you’ll never hear Trump telling — and Trump doesn’t have to — but it could be a key point of contrast between DeSantis and the former president. Goldenberg: He tells a story of having to spend an entire early-career paycheck buying OSHA-compatible boots for a job he got and how he resented that. It’s a more relatable story from a candidate who veers into highly intellectual territory and connects with voters more by positioning himself against the Democratic Party and talking about his record in Florida than personal anecdotes. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at cmchugh@politico.com or on Twitter at @calder_mchugh.
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