(CBrief) – Conservative Iowa talk show host Steve Deace, known for picking the Republican candidate who wins up winning the state’s caucus, has announced he is backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for the GOP nomination.

“I’m endorsing Ron DeSantis for president because I think he’s the strongest leader in the race. I think that’s proven. I’ve just seen a level of leadership, strength, that I’ve just not seen in this era,” he said during his program, “The Steve Deace Show.”

“I’ve seen a lot of good people come and go, but frankly I have never seen it, when it comes to the issues that are going to decide the future for our children and grandchildren, who has more knowledge, more willingness, more resume, in understanding them, what to do about them, and then actually doing it. I’ve never seen anything like what Ron DeSantis has done in Florida,” he added on Friday, according to The Hill.

In a press release, DeSantis’s campaign referred to Deace as an “Iowa Kingmaker,” noting that Deace endorsed 2008 Iowa caucus winner Mike Huckabee and 2016 winner Ted Cruz.

The endorsement came as DeSantis and the GOP presidential contenders converged on Iowa for its State Fair. DeSantis’s campaign has prioritized this initial battleground state as a key focus in his bid to build momentum. The campaign aims to cover all 99 counties in Iowa by the end of October.

That said, DeSantis is well behind former President Donald Trump in the polls, both in Iowa and nationally, The Hill noted:

A New York Times/Siena College poll released last week shows former President Trump still dominating the 2024 field nationally and in Iowa. However, Trump performs better nationally than in Iowa.

Nationally, Trump leads DeSantis 54 percent to 17 percent, according to the poll. However, in Iowa Trump leads DeSantis 44 percent to 20 percent among likely caucusgoers.

Left-wing protesters at the Iowa State Fair had to be removed by police after their demonstration got out of control on Saturday, according to reports.

They were at the event to protest Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds as they wore shirts with writing that said “Bitch Get Stuff Done” and “Be Gay Fund Abortion,” Mediaite reported.

Reynolds was interviewing DeSantis as the protesters used cowbells and whistles in an attempt to silence the GOP governors.

The Iowa governor asked the protesters to be silent and give everyone “an opportunity to hear from each and every candidate” as the pro-Republican crowd got into it with the protesters.

“You could either join the protests or leave the fairgrounds! Period,” an officer said. “You can enjoy this affair, or you can leave! We’re not going to do this!”

As the crowd cheered officers dragged one woman from the event as she shouted, “Get the f**k off of me!”

At the same event, Trump smashed his increasingly likely prosecution in Georgia, Mediaite reported separately.

“Is there any chance you take a plea deal in Georgia?” a reporter asked the former president.

“We did nothing wrong. We don’t ever take a plea deal. We don’t take plea deals. It’s a wise guy question. You’re just a wise guy,” the former president said.

“We don’t take plea deals because I did nothing wrong. It’s called election interference,” he said.

“Because these indictments are going out by Biden. Who can’t even put two sentences together. This is Joe Biden. Because he can’t win the election by himself. He can’t win the election based on votes. So what they did is they got the attorney general to do it. And then you see how stupid they acted yesterday with the appointment of the special counsel. They call it special counsel. And what a crazy thing that was. And it’s being laughed at all over the world,” he added.

“The fact is that we have a country that’s in serious trouble. We have a country that’s in major decline. I don’t mean decline, I mean major decline. And we’re going to straighten it out. This group and a lot of people just like this group. We’re going to straighten it out, and we’re going to make America great again. Wise guy,” Trump noted.

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