DeSantis vows moving Department of Agriculture to Iowa upon completing 99 county tour

NEWTON, Iowa – Gov. Ron DeSantis promised to move the U.S. Department of Agriculture at least partly to Iowa over the weekend upon completing his 99 county tour.

DeSantis began touring across the country, including Iowa, upon announcing his campaign bid in May.

“We have to take power out of Washington, D.C., and send it to other parts of the country,” the governor said. “I’m going to order all of our cabinet secretaries to reduce their agency’s footprint in Washington, D.C., by at least 50%.” 

The Florida governor finished visiting all of Iowa’s 99 counties in Jasper County Saturday.

The tour, also referred to as the “Full Grassley,” represents the DeSantis campaign’s steadfast effort to win the state’s caucus over former President Donald Trump next month.

Some voters in Iowa praised DeSantis’ efforts.

“I gave Trump a chance, but I just don’t think he did most of the things that I really cared about,” one voter said. “DeSantis, in Florida, with kind of a slim majority in his first term, did everything he said he was gonna do.”

The DeSantis campaign bragged of having at least 30,000 Iowa voters committing to caucus for DeSantis in January.

According to the current RealClearPolitics average of Iowa Caucus polling for the Republican Party, Trump leads DeSantis by around 30 points.

Nationally, the same metric finds the gap being even larger at nearly 50 points.

DeSantis’ promise to relocate the agriculture department to Iowa follows earlier campaign messaging vowing relocating other agencies out of Washington, D.C.

“We’re not going to let all this power accumulate in Washington, we’re going to break up these agencies,” DeSantis said privately.

DeSantis also vowed to “ship” parts of the U.S. Department of Justice to “other parts of the country” and stated intentions to ensure the agency operates more within the framework of the founding fathers’ vision.