Guess Who’s Coming for Dinner? 13 GOP Candidates in 130 Minutes in Iowa Cattle Call

National debt, economy, border, homeland defense, federal reform, energy policy among common topics addressed by 2024 Republican candidates in 10-minute pitches at the Iowa Lincoln Day Dinner.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump at the Republican Party of Iowa 2023 Lincoln Dinner in Des Moines, Iowa on July 28, 2023. Scott Olson/Getty Images

With 13 of the 14 GOP candidates seeking the party’s 2024 presidential nomination stumping in sequence at the Iowa Republican Party’s annual Lincoln Dinner, many believed some fireworks would be on the menu.

There was the expectation that, perhaps, this would be the time and place where Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, stagnating in the polls, would aggressively target frontrunner Donald Trump—who has not shied away from lambasting him—in an effort to boost his flagging campaign.