Days After Heated Debate, G.O.P. Candidates Take a Gentler Tone in Iowa

Casey DeSantis recounted a couple of humorous interactions between her husband, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, and their kids. Then she spoke in additional sober tones about her struggle in opposition to most cancers.

Vivek Ramaswamy introduced his 3-year-old son, Karthik, onstage and mentioned his Hindu religion.

And Nikki Haley, the previous governor of South Carolina, sitting beside her daughter, Rena, who just lately married, stated she nonetheless remembered her as a bit of lady “in pigtails.”

The Republican presidential candidates who spoke at a “religion and household” occasion on Saturday at Dordt College, an evangelical Christian college in Sioux Heart, Iowa, sought to current a kinder, gentler facet of themselves, simply days after an acrimonious debate and little greater than a month earlier than the Iowa caucuses, the primary nominating contest.

The candidates got here to this city of simply over 8,000 folks on a snow-dusted plain in rural northwestern Iowa, fewer than 40 miles from South Dakota, to pitch themselves to the world’s conservative voters and to hunt the endorsement of Consultant Randy Feenstra, the area’s widespread Republican congressman. Mr. Feenstra and his spouse interviewed every candidate in entrance of about 400 neighborhood members and faculty college students on the B.J. Haan Auditorium, the place banners learn “Glory to God Alone.”

Mr. Feenstra stated the extra uplifting tone of the occasion was purposeful.

“We didn’t need bickering,” he stated. “Individuals simply wished to listen to an trustworthy reply to a few of these questions, with out folks interrupting, with out having a 90-second little section.”

Then, away from the group and the spiritual symbols, the candidates went proper again to attacking one another — no less than mildly.

The swap in rhetoric underscored the tenuous place of any candidate not named Donald J. Trump. The previous president, who was not on the occasion, has maintained a commanding lead over his rivals, and even Ms. Haley, who has gained floor as Mr. DeSantis has slipped, trails far behind.

Mr. Ramaswamy, who’s even additional behind in most nationwide polls, made a daring forecast for a come-from-behind upset victory.

“Our technique is to shock the expectations on Jan. 15,” Mr. Ramaswamy informed reporters outdoors the auditorium, moments after doing 30 push-ups on the chilly concrete with a member of Dordt’s soccer group, which had come out to help him.

Addressing the contentious debate in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Wednesday, the place he accused Ms. Haley of being “corrupt” and a “fascist,” Mr. Ramaswamy recommended that Ms. Haley had stooped even decrease.

“She known as me ‘scum’ and ‘dumb’ within the two debates. I didn’t name her dumb. I did reveal that neither she nor Chris Christie know the very first thing concerning the nations that they supposedly wish to ship our assets to go struggle for,” he stated, referring to the previous governor of New Jersey who can be operating for the Republican nomination.

And whereas Mr. DeSantis struck a bipartisan tone onstage, saying that he would search frequent floor along with his political opponents, he additionally went on the offensive in a dialog after the occasion, criticizing the donation Ms. Haley just lately acquired from Reid Hoffman, the billionaire Democratic donor who co-founded LinkedIn.

Linda Kreykes, 63, stated that she was leaning towards supporting Mr. DeSantis however that she appreciated the feedback that Mr. Ramaswamy, who’s of Indian descent, made onstage concerning the shared teachings of Christianity and Hinduism.

“He shared similarities between the 2 faiths,” she stated. “We’re in the end not so totally different from one another.”

When it was her flip, Ms. Haley mentioned the taking pictures at a historic Black church in Charleston, S.C., in 2015, when a white gunman killed 9 Black worshipers. Ms. Haley talked about her choice to take away the Accomplice flag from the Statehouse after the shooter was seen in images posing proudly with the flag and a racist manifesto he had written was uncovered.

However Ms. Haley, in recounting her choice to name for the flag’s elimination, criticized the nationwide information media, asserting that they’d “wished to make it about race.”

“Half of South Carolinians noticed the Accomplice flag as custom and heritage,” Ms. Haley stated. “The opposite half of South Carolinians noticed slavery and hate. This wasn’t about me judging both facet.”

A majority of Iowa’s statewide politicians have stayed impartial within the Republican main, although Gov. Kim Reynolds has endorsed Mr. DeSantis. Mr. Feenstra has indicated that he’s contemplating making an endorsement as nicely, although he declined to take action on Saturday.

Nonetheless, the congeniality of the occasion left an impression on voters, who stated they had been sick of the rancor of the debates.

Relatively than permitting them to squabble onstage, stated Steve Rehder, 59, who’s deciding between Ms. Haley and Mr. DeSantis, “inform the candidates to reply the query and transfer on.”