Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida and a candidate for the 2024 United States presidential election, has come in second in a key battleground state for the Republican Party nomination.

According to multiple media outlets reporting on the Iowa Republican caucus on Jan. 15, DeSantis lost to former U.S. President Donald Trump with roughly 21% of the vote. Iowa results at the time of publication showed 23,420 people voted for DeSantis compared with 56,260 for Trump, winning the Florida governor eight delegates in the Republican National Convention scheduled for July.

Florida governor, who pledged CBDC ban, comes in second in Iowa Caucus image 0 Results of the Iowa Republican Caucus on Jan. 15. Source: The New York Times

DeSantis, who officially launched his presidential bid in July 2023, vowed to ban central bank digital currencies (CBDCs)  in the U.S. if elected. Before starting his campaign, he signed a bill into law in Florida restricting the use of federally issued CBDCs in the state, claiming they would threaten consumers’ financial freedom.

The Florida governor has largely polled behind Trump by more than 10 points since launching his campaign and, according to some polls, behind presidential candidate Nikki Haley. Vivek Ramaswamy, a contender for the Republican Party nomination who proposed a crypto-focused policy framework, dropped out of the race on Jan. 15 following the results of the Iowa Caucus, where he finished with roughly 8% of the vote.

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Nominations for the Republican and Democratic parties won’t become official until July and August, respectively. Polls at the time of publication suggested U.S. President Joe Biden and Trump would be the nominees, barring unforeseen circumstances. The two candidates will be 81 and 78 years old, respectively, on Election Day in 2024. Trump is also facing multiple felony charges at the state and federal levels and legal challenges to remove him from the ballot.

It’s unclear what role, if any, crypto and blockchain will have among U.S. voters in November. A poll released on Jan. 2 by the Crypto Council for Innovation suggested crypto users could be a “key swing voting bloc” in the 2024 elections.

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