Ron DeSantis was in New Hampshire. Mike Pence was in Iowa. And Donald Trump was home at his New Jersey golf course.
Republican presidential candidates fanned out across early voting states to march in Fourth of July parades on Tuesday, while Trump stayed put at his Bedminster resort with little reason to stump for himself given his mammoth lead over the field.
DeSantis pressed the flesh in a morning parade in Wolfeboro, N.H., on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee, a well-heeled resort area where moderate Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, owns a sprawling summer home. The Florida governor also visited Merrimack, in the southern part of the state, which is home to many blue-collar Republican voters whom he hopes to pry away from Trump.
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., who is in the second tier of candidates, also marched in that parade.
Pence marched in the Des Moines suburb of Urbandale, Iowa. The former vice president is betting the farm that he can win an upset on the back of the Hawkeye State’s staunchly evangelical Christian conservative GOP caucus crowd.
Trump, meanwhile, remained holed up in New Jersey after speaking at a sprawling holiday weekend rally in small-town South Carolina on Saturday.
For now, Trump is running away from the field with more than 50% support in most polls. He has told aides that he doesn’t see any upside to competing with his rivals in retail politics events like parades.
Trump wished a “Happy FOURTH OF JULY to everyone” in a morning post on his social media site, skipping his usual vitriol aimed at rivals and prosecutors like special counsel Jack Smith.
Most polls show Trump maintaining or even expanding his lead over the GOP field in the past several months, with DeSantis fading significantly and others mired in single digits.
Some surveys showed a slight softening of Trump’s support after he was indicted in the classified documents case.
There are now more than a dozen Republicans vying for the nomination, with many of them hoping that Trump will somehow be knocked out of the race, leaving a traditionally wide open field.
