Sub-zero temperatures aren’t stopping 2024 Republican candidates from deploying their families to campaign alongside them in the middle of a winter storm the days before Iowa‘s caucuses.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy have had their wives and young children join them on the campaign trail for large chunks of the primary cycle.
But some other family members are also jumping in for Hawkeye State events now that the primary contest is nearing – this includes Donald Trump Jr. as well as former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley‘s two adult children.
It’s clearly all-hands-on-deck as surrogates and families descend on Iowa to await the first tangible results of the 2024 cycle.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, his son Mason and wife Casey arrive at a surprise campaign stop Friday at his Urbandale, Iowa campaign headquarters. Casey has been headlining separate events from her husband to get the message out
Vivek and Apoorva Ramaswamy with son Arjun, one, attend a rally at the Iowa State Capitol Building on January 10 for a rally opposing construction of a CO2 pipeline
Ramaswamy, 38, travels with his wife Apoorva – a 34-year-old throat surgeon – and their two children Karthik, three, and Arjun, one.
The 2024 hopeful’s mother also joined the family in Iowa to help with the grandkids during some heavier campaigning days leading up to the first-in-the-nation primary contest on Monday.
Apoorva has held her own events without her husband, as well. She joined Moms for Liberty at the Iowa State Capitol building in Des Moines on Wednesday afternoon to talk about the plights of parenting in modern day America.
Despite maintaining her job as a surgeon back in Ohio, Dr. Ramaswamy has had an increasing role in her husband’s campaign ahead of the caucuses on Monday.
Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis, 43, has consistently been on the road with her husband from the start, along with their three kids: Madison, six; Mason, five; and Mamie, three.
The former TV anchor, current stay at home mom and breast cancer survivor holds several of her own events nearly daily while her husband is campaigning and attending to gubernatorial duties.
They also hold joint events that many-times include cameos from their kids.
Mason has been noticeably more present ahead of the caucus, appearing at almost every event with his parents while the campaign says the two girls were staying warm.
Former Amb. Haley’s husband Michael Haley is an Army officer currently deployed.
Their two adult children Rena, 25, and Nalin, 22, don’t often appear on the trail.
Gov. DeSantis, Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis and their two daughters Madison, six, and Mamie, three, appear in Ankeny, Iowa on Sunday, January 14
Rena Haley, 26, and Nalin Haley, 22, come out to hear their mother Nikki Haley speak Thursday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (pictured) and earlier in Ankeny, Iowa
Nikki Haley’s two children Rena, 26, and Nalin, 22, are sitting far-left listening to their mother speak at the restaurant Toast in Ankeny, Iowa on Thursday, January 11
The two did, however, come out to help bring their mom to the finish-line in Iowa, appearing with her at events in Ankeny on Thursday afternoon and later that day in Cedar Rapids.
This Week in South Carolina’s Gavin Jackson reported Thursday that Rena and Nalin were competing to see who could collect the most commit-to-caucus cards.
Nalin told Jackson that he was winning. ‘I’m not answering any questions, sorry,’ Rena answered when the journalist asked Halie’s daughter if that was true.
‘Who won? They won’t say!’ Haley later tweeted, sharing a picture of the duo holding up their stacks of cards.
In Ames, Iowa on Sunday, Haley spoke about the importance of her kids joining her on the trail.
‘While Michael’s deployed, my kids have stepped up,’ the ex-South Carolina governor noted.
‘Now when they were little and I saw in the governor’s residence and we’d have legislators or whoever come to visit, I would always go tell them to shake hands. I would say, ‘OK I’ll give you a quarter for every hand that you shake.’ And they would always have a bill for me, right at the end.’
‘Now they’re older and I don’t have to pay them anymore,’ Haley said. ‘But they’ve been out there knocking on doors and putting up yard signs and shaking hands. And right now they’re having a competition on who can get the most caucus cards.’
Former President Donald Trump has often deployed his family to campaign for him – but his kids have had a much less prevalent presence this election cycle compared to 2016 and 2020.
In previous years, wife Melania Trump would appear at some events, but this time around she has essentially been absent with just a few solo appearances like at the National Archives last month.
It’s possible that any potential appearances in Iowa were foiled with the death of her mother Amalija Knavs earlier this month.
Trump’s son Eric and his daughter Ivanka also joined the campaigns in earlier cycles along with their spouses Lara Trump and Jared Kushner. All four have been a lot less forward facing for the 2024 Republican primaries. Though at Trump’s rally in Indianola, Iowa on Sunday, a lengthy message played from Lara explaining the procedures of the caucus to ensure supporters turn out.
While his father was in court in New York Thursday, Donald Trump Jr. spoke to Iowa voters at the Machine Shed Restaurant in Urbandale, Iowa. The 46-year-old former first son needled his father’s opponents: Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and President Joe Biden
Donald Trump Jr. signs a baseball at the Machine Shed Restaurant in Urbandale, Iowa on Thursday. He came out and campaigned for his father, who was stuck in a New York City courtroom
Don Jr., and his fiancé Kimberly Guilfoyle, still show up the most frequently. The two are rallying Monday afternoon in a final push for Trump’s candidacy.
The younger Trump also appeared Thursday, while his father was in court in New York, at the Machine Shed Restaurant in Urbandale, where he was a guest of the Bull Moose Conservative Club, a 45-and-under political group.
Trump Jr. used blistering rhetoric to go after his dad’s opponents, saying that Haley was what would be produced if the ‘deep state’ created a candidate ‘in a lab.’
‘She’d be a wonderful candidate for the Republican Party in 2008. It’s like Hillary Clinton pretending to be a conservative,’ he added, garnering laughs.
The former first son also chided DeSantis for calling former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie after Christie dropped out of the race Wednesday.
He then turned his attention to the general election and President Joe Biden.
‘I hear about Bidenomics, Bidenomics,’ Trump Jr. said. ‘Hey man, full disclosure, I’m the son of a billionaire from Manhattan and if I’m p***ed off when I go to the supermarket – I’m not supposed to notice the difference!’
Mason DeSantis holds a snow ball in front of the Ron DeSantis for president campaign bus. Casey DeSantis remarked at a campaign stop Wednesday: ‘He wants to import the snow to Florida’
Casey DeSantis and Mason DeSantis (center right) joined Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (center) and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (right) at the campaign’s Urbandale headquarters on Friday amid a blizzard that cancelled other campaign events
DeSantis, currently in a bitter battle for second place with Haley, had to return to Tallahassee, Florida last week for his State of the State remarks and to address a string of tornadoes in his home state.
During his break from campaigning, Casey continued to stump for her husband, joining members of the Never Back Down pro-DeSantis super PAC as they knocked on Iowans’ doors.
Casey and son Mason knocked on door No. 3 million on Tuesday afternoon in the middle of the first of two snowstorms that ripped through Iowa this week.
Images and video of the milestone shared exclusively with DailyMail.com show Mason learning how to make a snowball and throwing it at his mother while they campaigned through the blizzard.
Gov. DeSantis noted at his town hall with Fox News on Tuesday evening that his children, all born and raised in Florida, saw snow for the first time last month while on the campaign trail – and said they are enjoying playing in it.
‘He’s been having so much fun in the the snow,’ Casey also told a small group of potential caucusgoers Wednesday at the Rising Sun Cafe in Polk City, Iowa.
While she was speaking to the group, Mason ran outside the coffee shop and was spotted making more snowballs and throwing them toward the Never Back Down bus.
‘He wants to import the snow to Florida,’ she continued, garnering laughs.
The Florida governor also brought Casey and Mason out to greet the crowd Sunday during a campaign stop in Grimes, Iowa.
Casey held Mason in her arms and the kindergartener looked grumpy.
‘He’s not that happy because the Jaguars seem like they’re getting their butt kicked right now,’ the governor explained. ‘He’s a big football guy.’
The young DeSantis’ team, the Jacksonville Jaguars, were defeated by the Tennessee Titans later that afternoon.
Throat surgeon Apoorva Ramaswamy plays with toy cars on the ground with son Karthik, three, as her husband and 2024 hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy speaks to supporters during a house party in Clive, Iowa on January 11
Speaking during a rally at the Iowa State Capitol Building on Wednesday, Ramaswamy discussed being on the road with his family.
The self-made millionaire said it doesn’t matter what they are doing, as long as it’s together.
‘Apoorva’s probably shepherding our little boys to naptime right now,’ he told a crowd gathered at the Capitol to protest the building of a CO2 pipeline in Iowa that has used eminent domain to claim private land.
‘Everything we do, we do it as a family right now,’ Ramaswamy said when a crowd member asked him what they enjoy doing in their free time. ‘Right now, that looks like the campaign process. So we got a lot of fun with that as well.’
‘But one of the things is no matter what we do, whether it’s doing this political campaign… Whether it’s serious, whether it’s something light hearted, whether it’s riding the campaign bus, we do what we do as a family,’ he added.
‘So we’ll play sports, we’ll teach our kids how to play the piano, how to play tennis, give them lessons. We’ll engage, Apoorva and I, are participating in the process of homeschooling our two young sons. We’re proud of that.’