Ron DeSantis hogged a bumper cars ride, then his campaign made it a bigger issue
Image via AP.

DeSantis bumper cars AP
‘The ride was open to anyone who wanted to join,’ DeSantis’ campaign said despite video evidence to the contrary.

Ron DeSantis committed another unforced error in his quest for the White House, when his campaign over the weekend shut out the public or accepted exclusive use of a bumper cars ride at the Iowa State Fair.

It wasn’t a great look for someone trying to seem relatable in spite of a growing record of awkward interactions on the campaign trail.

Then his campaign exacerbated the misstep by lying about it.

DeSantis, his wife, Casey, and their three small children visited the Des Moines fair Saturday, joining several Republican pols from Iowa to drum up support for the Governor’s floundering run at the presidency.

He flipped burgers and pork chops alongside U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst and U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn, rubbed elbows with fairgoers, won carnival game prizes and enjoyed a few rides. He also absorbed praise from supporters, heckles from protesters and taunts from the GOP front-runner, Donald Trump, who attended the fair too and paid for a cheeky banner flown overhead that read, “Be likeable, Ron.”

Those interactions, as well as a nasty argument between officials of a PAC backing DeSantis and a Trump supporter at a nearby dive bar Thursday yielded early headlines. But the bumper cars faux pas might prove more enduring due to subsequent insistence by the DeSantis campaign that people disbelieve their eyes.

A video Team DeSantis posted to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, shows the Governor and his wife piloting a pair of bumper cars, each with one of their children as a passenger, and several empty vehicles parked around them.

Roughly a dozen onlookers can be seen standing outside the railing. Many have cameras and are recording the private bumper cars run. Others appear to be idling about while waiting a little longer for their turn.

Another video posted to Forbes’ YouTube page also shows the entire rink empty except for the DeSantises and a fair staffer.

The jeers arrived not long after the videos and others hit the web.

“Always a great idea on a Saturday … to shut down a popular attraction so voters can watch you have a good time,” wrote Ron Filipkowski, a Sarasota-based lawyer and former Judicial Nominating Commission appointee of DeSantis’ who has since become one of the Governor’s most frequent critics.

Others suggested DeSantis missed a fundraising opportunity.

“I, personally, would have paid $100 to ram into him,” wrote Greer McVay.

Rather than ignore the criticism or offer a reasonable explanation for why the ride had been closed — for instance, to maintain security for a presidential candidate in a setting that invites physical contact — DeSantis’ team chose a less forthcoming tack.

“This is completely false,” wrote Bryan Griffin, DeSantis’ campaign Press Secretary. “The ride was open to anyone who wanted to join for that run.”

The videos tell another story and make it so one of two things is true: Either it is not “completely false” that the bumper cars were closed to others while DeSantis and his family used them, or none of the people waiting in line wanted to get on the ride when it was their turn because they collectively agreed the DeSantises should have it to themselves.

Which of those two rings truer?

Dan McLaughlin, a senior writer for the conservative National Review magazine, said he was “right there” at the bumper cars ride when the DeSantises used it alone. Roughly “10-15 people” were in line, he said, and there were “more people taking pictures of DeSantis … than people waiting for him to get off.”

“Basically, they just waited through one ride,” he wrote on X. “It’s not as if the Secret Service would have let Trump or (President Joe) Biden do it differently.”

True, but the point is that DeSantis’ campaign needlessly lied about something so easily refutable.

And it wasn’t the only time the Governor hogged a ride that day. A video Iowa Starting Line posted to X shows the DeSantis family and Ernst riding a Ferris wheel, which is also oddly empty of others.

Close to 118,300 people attended the Iowa State Fair on Saturday.

Arguably the cringiest clip of a Republican candidate at the fair goes to entrepreneur and author Vivek Ramaswamy for his rendition of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself.” Ramaswamy, a self-professed “anti-woke” candidate who has called Juneteenth a “useless” holiday, gave up on the number less than halfway through its first chorus.

Ramaswamy now leads DeSantis among likely GOP voters in a national survey by Kaplan Strategies. Both trail in distant second and third place, respectively, behind Trump.

Florida Politics contacted the Iowa State Fair for comment but received none by press time.

Jesse Scheckner

Jesse Scheckner has covered South Florida with a focus on Miami-Dade County since 2012. His work has been recognized by the Hearst Foundation, Society of Professional Journalists, Florida Society of News Editors, Florida MMA Awards and Miami New Times. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @JesseScheckner.


13 comments

  • Dont Say FLA

    August 14, 2023 at 3:42 pm

    Anyone who made it past the Florida State Patrol security perimeter checkpoint and then past Secret Service too was totally welcome to ride.

    How dumb does the Rhonda Campaign think people are?

    Jeez, Rhonda.

    LOL @ Rhonda. Just. Plain. Rhonda. L.O.L.

  • TJC

    August 14, 2023 at 3:55 pm

    Ron’s a jerk and his handlers are jerks, so yeah, he’s not likable. But another takeaway from this article is the notion that Trump believes Trump is likable. That’s not true. Trump is worshiped by his followers, and many of them may like him, but if you’re not in the cult, he’s not likable, he is despicable.

  • Ocean Joe

    August 14, 2023 at 3:56 pm

    Vivek “rapping” was a far more serious breach of decency. Let the governor have some fun with his family. A couple folks waited for a few minutes. No big deal.

    All I ask is that the governor and Commissioner Diaz report to the Montgomery waterfront for their much needed civics lesson.

  • Whites Are An Underclass Now

    August 14, 2023 at 4:14 pm

    This is the best ‘the master race’ can offer?

    Who took the ‘supremacy’ out of White Supremacy?

    Ron Did That!

  • PeterH

    August 14, 2023 at 4:20 pm

    Here’s the thing…..if a Democrat for President did this it would be headline news on Fox for two weeks.

  • Joe

    August 14, 2023 at 4:39 pm

    Bryan Griffin, the self professed “advocate for Christ”, casually lying yet again for his boss like they taught him at UF Law.

  • Jake

    August 14, 2023 at 5:17 pm

    You can measure the greatness of a State Fair, by the Freakshow Attraction. Iowa was spot on with the bumper car addition 🤣

  • Michael K

    August 14, 2023 at 5:22 pm

    And why are they dragging those kids everywhere? Nothing more than props.

  • Michael W Priory

    August 14, 2023 at 7:05 pm

    Ron DUHsantASS, keeping the DUH in FloriDUH.

  • Thomas Kaspar

    August 14, 2023 at 9:17 pm

    Stupid Democrat rented political spam .

  • Stevie Imes

    August 15, 2023 at 3:37 pm

    Bumper cars is no fun if there are only two of you anyway.

  • Nobody joined

    August 15, 2023 at 4:18 pm

    ‘The ride was open to anyone who wanted to join,’ says the DeSantis Campaign, painfully unaware that, if true, that means not one soul at the entire Iowa State Fair wanted to join the DeSantis family on bumper cars.

    You know what? I believe them. I can believe nobody at all wanted to play bumpers cars with Ron.

    It’s Ron which is bad enough, but then after Tennessee, NOOOOOO body was gonna join.

  • Thomas Kaspar

    August 15, 2023 at 8:59 pm

    This story reminds of my boyfriend Zachary. He likes to pretend my butthole is a bumper car with his big hunky meat torpedo! 😊

Comments are closed.


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