On the Saturday before the Iowa caucus, Ron DeSantis stopped in the small city of Atlantic for a meet and greet with roughly two dozen voters and two dozen reporters. It had been scheduled to coincide with a rally for Donald Trump in town a few hours later so that reporters could see DeSantis and then dash back to see Trump with time to spare. That was before the weather intervened. It wasn’t cold in Iowa. It was Siberian. The mercury dropped well below zero and the windchill meant that leaving any skin exposed to the elements for more than a few minutes presented a legitimate health risk. Trump, who was flying in from Florida, canceled his rally. DeSantis, who had spent months doggedly stumping the state, did not.

The event was held in the backroom of a restaurant on the town’s snow-swept main drag. Because the restaurant was closed, attendees were fed McDonald’s cheeseburgers that the campaign had picked up in two bags of thirty from one of the few establishments open in town.

However, even when his campaign event was literally the only thing happening in Atlantic, DeSantis wasn’t able to draw everyone in the town. Two LDS missionaries who lived upstairs from the restaurant came down to see what the hubbub was about. They liked DeSantis but didn’t stick around to see him —........

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