FAIRFIELD – Former President Donald Trump is the clear favorite to represent the Republican Party among the party’s voters in Jefferson County.

Iowa’s Republicans and Democrats attended their respective caucuses Monday night, Jan. 15, where they got to express their preference for their party’s nominee for President of the United States.

Jefferson County Republican Party Chair Marshan Roth reported that 433 votes were cast in the Republican caucus in Jefferson County, and that about 70 percent of those (301) went to Donald Trump.

Continuing down the list in order were: Ron DeSantis 52, Nikki Haley 40, Vivek Ramaswamy 37, Ryan Binkley 2, and one person voted for “other.”

At the state level, Trump won 98 of Iowa’s 99 counties, and lost Johnson County by a single vote to Haley. He received nearly 51 percent of the ballots cast, compared to 21 percent for DeSantis, 19 percent for Haley, and 8 percent for Ramaswamy. After the results came in, Ramaswamy announced he was suspending his campaign.

Trump’s strong showing

Republicans in Fairfield gathered in the Fairfield High School Auditorium, where a representative of each campaign was given a few minutes to speak on their behalf. Ryan Smelcer was the first to approach the microphone, and he spoke on behalf of Trump while wearing a cap that read “Trump Caucus Captain.”

Smelcer implored the Republicans in the room to get behind Trump, arguing that Trump was the “greatest president in history,” that he had built a sound economy, that he had made the U.S. energy independent, that he had secured the border and “cut illegal immigration by 90 percent.” He also credited Trump with “destroying the deep state” and said that Trump’s political enemies were against him because “they know that Trump is going to stop them.”

Smelcer said he wasn’t even a Republican until this election, and that he supported other candidates in 2016 and 2020.

“I’d like to see Biden and those people out, because I think they’re doing a bad job,” Smelcer told The Union. “To get someone better in, I think Trump is the best person to do that, and so I want to put my vote for Trump.”

Smelcer said some of the issues that he’s concerned about are energy and immigration.

“We need energy to support the country, and it’s been mismanaged terribly,” he said. “They’re investing trillions of dollars into battery technology, which is unproven and has been a failure. Car companies now are admitting it, and it’s going to bankrupt the country.”

Smelcer said he was upset about recent reports of school children in New York City whose classes went remote because their gymnasium was used to house migrants.

“It’s just absurd,” he said.

When asked if he would support another Republican if Trump lost the nomination, Smelcer said he had “no comment.”

When the big group that met in the auditorium was divided into wards and scattered throughout the building, residents were given another chance to speak on behalf of their preferred candidate. This gave Fairfield resident Joseph Perna a chance to perform a song he wrote called “Iowa is Trump Country.”

The song goes as follows:

“Iowa is Trump Country

Iowa is a Trump Farm

Iowa is a Big Trump Tractor

We’ve got the right to bear arms

Out here in the heartland

We love President Trump

He puts America First

He’s the president for us

Yee-haw!”

Perna said he had already publicized this song through social media and by posting it to YouTube, but felt there was no better time to perform it than on caucus night. And this is not the first time he’s written a song about Trump, having done so during Trump’s first run for president in 2016.

“I saw a picture of a guy wearing a T-shirt that said, ‘Iowa is Trump country,’ and I said, ‘Man, that’s a song title,’” Perna said. “I love President Trump, so I wrote that song. Music has been the main inspiration in my life, and to apply it to something like this is really important for me.”

Fairfield resident Anna Spanton and her mother Elizabeth Spanton also caucused for President Trump. Anna is the owner of a family-run medical company, and she said that using American-made components in their manufacturing process is her company’s priority.

“To do good and bring jobs to rural Iowa is important to us at Spanton Dynamics,” Anna said. “I love that Trump’s focus is on small business and bringing life back to manufacturing here.”

Elizabeth said she likes Trump because, “I can rely on the truth from him.”

“He’s brave enough to say what’s real instead of placating other people and being popular,” Elizabeth said. “He doesn’t care about being popular. He cares about changing our nation’s focus into the original plan that our forefathers had for our country.”

Anna said she met several other presidential candidates during the campaign, but none of them impressed her like Trump. When asked who her second favorite candidate is, Anna replied, “I wouldn’t have voted for anyone else.” She said she can’t imagine Trump failing to get the Republican nomination.

Ron DeSantis

Fairfield resident Rick Shafer made the case for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to his fellow Republicans in the FHS Auditorium. Shafer said one of the main reasons he believes DeSantis should be the party’s nominee is that he can win over independent voters.

“Republicans are always going to vote for Republicans, and Democrats are always going to vote for Democrats,” he said. “But the swing voters – the independents – are the ones who will decide the election. Ron DeSantis has consistently shown that he can deliver crucial swing voters.”

Shafer pointed to DeSantis’s 20-point victory in the 2022 Florida governor’s race as evidence that he was a winner.

“He also flipped a solid-blue Miami-Dade County red, and he mopped the floor with Democrat Gavin Newsom on live TV,” Shafer said. “He could run circles around Joe Biden.”

Shafer said DeSantis would not be consumed with “legal battles and distractions,” and that he would be able to serve two terms if elected instead of one.

Shafer said DeSantis has delivered record surpluses to Florida and “historic tax relief.” He said the governor prevented China from “buying up our farmland,” and stopped the “defunding of our law enforcement.”

Vivek Ramaswamy

Cynthia Yockey spoke on behalf of entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. She said she preferred Ramaswamy to Trump because Ramaswamy is 38 while Trump is 77, and Trump is “overwhelmed by lawfare.”

“The Democrats are going to make it impossible for [Trump] to get anything done,” she said. “He keeps stepping on rakes that he doesn’t have to step on. Whereas Vivek, again and again, when the media try to play gotcha with him, he shut them down hard.”

Yockey recited Ramaswamy’s key beliefs, such as “God is real. There are two sexes. Human flourishing requires fossil fuel. Reverse racism is racism. An open border is no border. Parents determine the education of their children. The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind. Capitalism lifts people up from poverty. There are three branches of government – the media cannot consider themselves the fourth branch of government. The U.S. Constitution is the strongest guarantor of freedoms in history.”

Yockey said the moment in the campaign that really sold her on Ramaswamy was when a single mother in Ottumwa interrupted his talk to argue for abortion rights.

“She was making a big fuss, and his people were escorting her out, and he called her back,” Yockey said. “Who does that? He called her back and said, ‘Where can we find common ground? We want to make your life better.’ He still stood up for pro-life, but he said we’re going to make your life better. That woman walked out of that place with her face shining and like she was walking on air.”

After the attendees had broken into their respective wards, Fairfield resident Ed Noyes put in his two cents for why he was endorsing Ramaswamy. He said that Ramaswamy recognizes that the “administrative state is actually governing our country,” and that’s why “nothing ever changes.”

“He’s going to reduce these things down … get rid of the FDA, the Department of Education and even perhaps the FBI, which we know has been completely weaponized,” Noyes said.

Nikki Haley

Peter Scharf spoke on behalf of Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina from 2011-2017 and who served as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations during the first two years of the Trump Administration. Scharf spoke about Haley’s upbringing as the daughter of two Indian immigrants, and how she got involved in South Carolina’s state politics.

“She fought against a 30-year incumbent and won,” Scharf said. “Now she’s leading in the polls over Ron DeSantis, and she’s only shortly behind Donald Trump in New Hampshire.”

Scharf said one of the reasons he’s supporting Haley is that she polls well against President Joe Biden.

“She comes in 17 points ahead,” he said. “Whereas Trump only comes in four points ahead. She’s well positioned to win the election if she wins the nomination.”

Scharf said that Haley will “support small businesses, stop Washington spending sprees, protect our border, champion school choice and save America’s future. I think she’ll win.”