By James Oliphant

DES MOINES, Iowa Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, following his presidential campaign debut online, will dive into old-school retail politicking in key early voting states this week, his first chance to connect with voters since announcing his bid for the 2024 Republican nomination.

DeSantis will campaign in Iowa for two days and then move on to New Hampshire and South Carolina on a tour that will be closely watched to see if the buttoned-down, policy-minded governor can flash interpersonal skills that some critics have said he lacks.

Former President Donald Trump, the front-runner in the Republican race, will be right behind him. Trump will hold events in Iowa the day DeSantis stumps in New Hampshire, a sign the battle for the nomination is about to enter a more intense phase.

DeSantis will hold a kickoff event in Des Moines, Iowa, on Tuesday, the kind of old-style campaign rally he eschewed in favor of announcing his candidacy in a virtual forum on Twitter with its owner, Elon Musk, that was plagued by technical issues. The fiasco drew mockery from Trump and other rivals.

Iowa is a key state for DeSantis. The Iowa caucuses next February will be the first nominating contest in the nation, and the state's sizeable evangelical population has sometimes been at odds with Trump. Trump lost the caucuses in 2016 to U.S. Senator Ted Cruz.

New Hampshire and South Carolina will hold nominating contests in the weeks after.

Since his announcement, DeSantis has argued that he is the only Republican who can defeat Democratic President Joe Biden, who beat Trump in the 2020 election, and has lamented what he calls a “culture of losing” in the party.

DeSantis has been sharpening his attacks on Trump, suggesting that Trump strayed from conservative principles during his one term as president by supporting immigration reform and robust anti-COVID pandemic policies.

“This is a different guy than 2015, 2016,” DeSantis said on Friday in an interview with The Daily Wire, a conservative news website.

DeSantis' campaign said it raised $8.2 million in the first 24 hours after his launch, signaling that he will have deep financial backing from party donors seeking to ensure Trump does not gain the nomination.

(Reporting by James Oliphant; Editing by Leslie Adler)