The Horse Race: Trump’s Non-Campaign Campaign: GOP Field Runs Circles around Former President on the Trail

with Brittany Bernstein

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

Trump's Non-Campaign Campaign: GOP Field Runs Circles around Former President on the Trail

Donald Trump's absence at the first GOP primary debate is just the latest example of the former president's unprecedented refusal to make his case directly to voters.

In the months leading up to debate night in Milwaukee, other contenders have been traversing the early primary states, shaking hands with voters and holding intimate grassroots events. But Trump has held fewer than 40 campaign events since entering the race way back in November, and just 17 of those events have been in the early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, according to a National Review analysis.

Instead of returning time and time again to woo early primary voters, Trump has attended a sparse number of events spread across seven states: Florida, Texas, Indiana, Georgia, New Jersey, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

By contrast, Trump's closest competitor, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, has made 78 campaign stops in the early primary states since entering the race six months after Trump, his campaign told NR. Forty-eight of those stops were in Iowa, with another 23 stops in New Hampshire and seven in South Carolina. Since DeSantis entered the race on May 24, Trump has made just nine campaign stops in the early primary states.