One DeSantis fundraiser, who was granted anonymity to relay private conversations, said they didn’t see how DeSantis could “pull it together.”

“It went wrong early and they’ve corrected a lot late … By the time he had his footing, [Donald Trump] had his foot on his throat,” the donor said.

A poor showing in the Hawkeye State is widely viewed as a mortal wound for DeSantis’ campaign, though the governor said he would stay in the race no matter what happened Monday and will be
traveling to South Carolina after Iowa. He invested more resources and time in the state than New Hampshire or South Carolina, including visiting all 99 counties, yet the respected
final Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom poll shows him 32 points behind Trump and trailing former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley by four points.

Never Back Down, the political action committee backing his candidacy, said it recruited more than 1,600 precinct captains in Iowa and created an aggressive ground game over the course of nine months that’ll be especially crucial as temperatures dip dangerously low. DeSantis received coveted endorsements from Iowa’s popular Gov. Kim Reynolds and evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats, and he has a slight edge on Trump when it comes to voter intensity, according to the Des Moines Register poll.

“Gov. DeSantis over the past month has been exceptional on everything he has been doing: the debate stage, the town halls, working Iowa, working New Hampshire,” Lambert said. “I don’t have any complaints about any of what he has done. Now we are going to see if it worked.”

There was a time when DeSantis’ prospects would not have appeared so dim in Iowa. He entered last year with high expectations after coming off a historic, nearly 20-point reelection victory in Florida.
Some polls even showed him besting Trump in a hypothetical matchup. But when he officially entered the Republican presidential primary, he faced a string of negative headlines,
from a glitchy social media launch to news
about layoffs and poor financial planning.

Through the summer and into fall, DeSantis struggled to gain traction. His
standing in most polls has gone down while top rival Trump has dominated, showing a nearly 35-point lead in Iowa as of Friday. Haley is capitalizing on her momentum and attracted big name donors, including
the Koch family and some who routinely contribute to Democrats,
including LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman.

Making matters more difficult is that Trump’s indictments increased his favorability among GOP voters and the PAC supporting Trump’s political operation attacked DeSantis with $23 million in negative ad spending, more than against any rival including President Joe Biden.

The DeSantis donor questioned the campaign’s assertion that the polls are wrong, saying, “There has to be some accuracy in the polls because they all say the same thing.” But the donor added that anything is possible.

“Could he catch lightning in a bottle? Everybody is kind of frozen right now,” the donor said.