DES MOINES — Francis Suarez made his way around the Iowa State Fairgrounds, largely unrecognized by the massive throng taking in all the fair has to offer.
Two people recognized Suarez, the mayor of Miami and a Republican candidate for president, during his early Friday afternoon stroll, both having heard or watched him on recent media appearances.
“I just like him,” said Zach Bogle, who introduced himself to and took a selfie with Suarez. Bogle, who lives in the Des Moines suburb of Pleasant Hill, said he heard Suarez recently on the “Full Send” podcast.
A woman also recognized Suarez from a TV interview he’d done that morning — and also wiped a little bit of mustard from Suarez’s cheek after he’d had a corn dog.
Outside of that, Suarez drew scant attention from fairgoers.
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Such is the challenge facing candidates like Suarez, who come to Iowa without the name recognition of other 2024 Republican presidential candidates like former President Donald Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott or former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley.
Suarez does not even register in most national polling on the Republican presidential primary, according to polls collected by Real Clear Politics.
In trying to introduce himself to Iowans, he participated in Gov. Kim Reynolds’ “Fair-Side Chats” and the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox. Both events were modestly attended.
Suarez also fielded questions from reporters after the Soapbox and did a number of one-on-one interviews with national and local media outlets.
Suarez said his mission is to take on each hurdle, each little step in succession. The first task is qualifying for the first Republican presidential primary debate, Aug. 23 in Milwaukee. Then it’s qualifying for the next debate.
Meantime, Suarez said, his goal is to tell his personal story and guide the campaign conversation to forward-looking issues that matter most to Iowans and Americans.
In remarks to Reynolds and on the Soapbox, Suarez said he balanced Miami’s budget. The city, he said, has seen double-digit economic growth in each of the past two years and its violent crime rate has fallen.
Murders were down 36 percent in the first three months of this year and the number of shooting victims was down 70 percent, according to a local TV report on data provided by the city.
As a presidential candidate, he said, he would be able to attract Hispanic, young and urban voters.
“If we win (those voters), it’s game over,” he said. “I’ve already done that. I have a proven track record of connecting with those voters.”
Bogle, the Pleasant Hill voter, said he also likes Suarez because he’s a younger candidate. Suarez is 45. “We have too many old, white guys running,” Bogle said.
Suarez may not have encountered a large number of state fairgoers, but he tried more than his fair share of State Fair classic foods. Suarez, who is physically fit, ate a corn dog, some Mexican grilled corn on the cob, and a fried Oreo.
That means working out “before and after” a day at the fair, Suarez said.
“You gotta burn the calories,” he said.
SOME SUPPORT, SOME HECKLING FOR PENCE
Pence met a mostly supportive crowd on his second day at the fair, where he flipped pork at the Iowa Pork Producers’ tent and mingled with voters as he chomped down a pork burger.
While Pence talked with reporters, Andrew Wallace, a 21-year-old Republican from Wisconsin, held up a Trump sign and occasionally heckled the former vice president. Pence also was characterized as a “traitor” by passersby and encountered chants of “Trump 2024.”
Trump’s most loyal supporters have antagonized Pence for not rejecting the electoral votes from several states when he presided over the U.S. Senate’s certification of the 2020 presidential election results. Trump and his lawyers asked Pence to reject the count, but Pence has said he had no constitutional authority to reject the votes, and he has criticized Trump for trying to overturn the electoral process.
Trump was indicted this month and accused of a conspiracy to overturn the election results to remain in power after the 2020 election. According to the indictment, Pence’s role in the electoral vote count was central to those plans.
“I was always loyal to Donald Trump until the day came that my oath to the Constitution required me to do otherwise,” Pence said during a “Fair-Side Chat” with Reynolds on Friday. “But I’ll always be proud of the record of the Trump-Pence administration."
Pence has been ramping up his criticism of the former president over his bid to subvert the 2020 election in recent weeks, saying Trump and his “gaggle of crackpot lawyers” asked him to overturn votes in violation of the constitution.
But Wallace, the Wisconsin Trump supporter, said Pence should have sent the electoral votes back to the states Jan. 6, despite Trump’s dozens of court cases against those votes being thrown out for lack of evidence.
“All over the place, Mike Pence gets talked to by Trump supporters,” Wallace said. “He gets called out for what he is. He’s a liar, he’s a sham, and he’s not a Christian.”
LARRY ELDER TRYING TO QUALIFY FOR DEBATE
Speaking at the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox, Republican presidential candidate Larry Elder, a California radio talk show host, asked the crowd to donate to his campaign to help make him eligible for the debate stage on Aug. 23 in Milwaukee.
He is about 15,000 donors short of qualifying for the debate, and also needs to pull in enough support in two qualifying polls over the next 10 days.
“Even if you want somebody other than the Elder to be the nominee, the issues that Elder is talking about, that you'll hear in just a second, are worth him being up there if for no other reason than to put those issues front and center,” Elder said.
Elder expounded on his main campaign points — warning of the “epidemic of fatherlessness” in the U.S., his opposition to claims of systemic racism in America, and concerns about failing education rates.
Elder did not say whether he will drop out of the race if he does not qualify for the debate.
“I don't have any plans to not make it to the debate stage,” he said. “My Plan B is to make plan A work. Plan A is to get on that debate stage. And at the pace I’m going, I should make it.”
Elder frequently said if he can brings up his key issues on the national stage he will feel accomplished even if he is not the nominee. But he told reporters he is taking his bid for the nomination seriously, despite his struggling support numbers.
“Anything can happen, and trust me, it will happen,” he said. “We have no idea what’s going to happen. Do I believe I’m a serious candidate? Hell, yes.”
