CHARITON, Iowa — Two months after launching his campaign for president, Gov. Ron DeSantis is struggling to make a dent in former President Donald Trump’s poll numbers.

What You Need To Know

  • Ron DeSantis has cut campaign staff and is rebooting the campaign, and that reboot took him Thursday to Iowa

  • He said winning "small time" Iowa can get his campaign back on the right foot

  • DeSantis met with residents at a local business, went to a county fair and planned a town hall event

He has cut staff and is rebooting the campaign, and that reboot starts in Iowa.

Spectrum News was on the trail with him Thursday in Chariton, Iowa, as he started a three-day bus tour.

Facing an uphill battle, DeSantis said it is “small town” Iowa that he has got to win over.

“We’re excited to be here, back in Iowa,” DeSantis said to a crowd of about 30 people in a business on the town square. “I think it’s very important that you go to the rural counties, so we're going to hit them all."

Krist Shoemaker, owner of Pipers Candies in the square, said she grew up in the city. She is a registered Democrat, but she said the nation needs a change, and she’s willing to listen to all the candidates.

She told Spectrum News anchor Holly Gregory that she was willing to support DeSantis, but said “I don’t think I can,” when asked the same about Trump.

At the DeSantis stop Thursday, many say they are undecided. For Brad and Cathy Reese, she’s leaning toward DeSantis, and he’s leaning toward Trump.

“I think there's a lot of people here in Iowa that are trying to decide if there is another candidate that they would like to have besides Trump, because, just all of the rhetoric and everything that comes with Trump as a candidate,” Cathy Reese said.

The couple got a chance to meet DeSantis, and Cathy came out impressed with him.

Ron DeSantis meets with a resident in Chariton, Iowa, on Thursday. (Holly Gregory/Spectrum Bay News 9)

Asked why Trump voters aren’t leaving him for DeSantis, the governor said, “Well, what I would say, in Florida, he won by three, I won by 20. And so, we were winning Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, we were winning independent voters by double digits. And that's really the formula that you need to be able to beat Biden and to be able to beat the Democrats."

DeSantis also went to a nearby county fair and planned to hold a Town Hall style meeting Thursday night.