The indictments of former President Donald Trump have intensified Iowa Republicans' support for him in the 2024 GOP primary race, The Messenger reported.
After Trump was indicted in New York City on state charges and then in Miami on federal charges, Iowans are not expressing support for such candidates as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., as they were in the spring.
"Now you don't hear those names brought up like before. The majority of Republicans here are for Trump after this frickin' legal lynching. That's all it is," said Washington County Republican Party Chairman Miller, The Messenger reported.
"People here take the indictment personally. I think if they wouldn't have done this thing and try to prosecute and persecute him and drag this guy through the mud like they've been doing for seven years that it would be different. But people are mad."
Dallas County GOP chair Kelley Koch, whose area includes the capital city of Des Moines, offered a similar take.
"What I'm hearing in my county is that it's basically all in for Trump," Koch said. "I have some property in Iowa where sometimes we like to have a bonfire, and if you can't get it to start, we get a 3-gallon ginormous jug of diesel fuel and pour it all over and get the fire started.
"The analogy is similar. They poured a ginormous jug of diesel fuel on a bonfire and people are fired up. They stirred people that normally would not be stirred right now. People are starting to identify with what Trump is going through."
Nearly two dozen GOP Iowa county chairs, consultants, and activists who have not announced which candidate they will support said the New York and federal indictments have intensified the devotion Trump backers and consolidated support among former doubters, according to The Messenger.
The Iowa caucuses will launch the Republican primary season in January.
Many party insiders believe a Trump loss in Iowa likely would prolong the primary fight, though a convincing victory would initiate a string of wins in the next four early states to all but assure his nomination.
Recent polls show Trump with a double-digit lead over DeSantis, who is well ahead of the other dozen GOP primary candidates.
Even a Trump critic such as Drew Klein, Iowa state director for the conservative Americans for Prosperity group, admitted difficulties of attacking the former president over the indictments.
"I don't think Trump supporters are wrong when they point to these indictments and say, 'Look, this is a political witch hunt. This is political persecution.' I think that is largely true," Klein said, The Messenger reported. "But even people who agree on that point are coming to different conclusions on what that means, relative to where Republicans should go in their nomination process."
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