Blending in amongst a crowd of local Iowans, Missouri native Laela Zaidi held a poster that read “Never Back Down,” a slogan from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign.
But she was no supporter. Minutes later, Zaidi would be one of three climate activists heckling the politician, labeling him a “climate criminal” a week before the state’s first-in-the-nation caucus.
The disruptions were not unique to DeSantis — as the presidential hopefuls continued their campaigns throughout the state, protesters from the Sunrise Movement showed up to heckle the Republicans to raise awareness about climate change. It might seem like a futile effort, but young people from across the country attempted to be heard as the nation looked to Iowa.
Ray Mitchem, a retired public school teacher who previously taught biology, said in an interview at his Marshalltown caucus meeting on Monday that the protesters were “youths [who] have been part of those that drank too much of the Kool-aid.”
“On the global level, Mother Nature will do what Mother Nature wants to do without humans trying to intervene,” Mitchem said. “If the youth are there trying to promote that it’s human fault causing the climate problems, those youths have been pulled in by the wrong crowd.”
Mitchem, who said he would be caucusing for the first time this year, shared that he planned to support Vivek Ramaswamy, a businessman who has previously expressed controversial views toward climate change. Ramaswamy suspended his campaign Monday night after taking a disappointing fourth place in Iowa.
“For the most part, it’s a total hoax,” Mitchem said.
DeSantis didn’t go quite that far at his event, even as student after student forced him to pause his stump speech.
Paul Campion, a student at Loyola University of Chicago who also disrupted a rally with former President Trump, waited for his opening during the evening event at a barbecue restaurant. He climbed onto the stage next to DeSantis and raised a banner before being tackled by security.
“I’m here to ask Ron DeSantis what his plan is to stop the climate crisis,” Campion told Annenberg Media after being escorted out. “I know he’s taken millions of dollars from oil, gas and coal executives, and it looks like he’s padded his heels with that cash instead of creating a plan.”
DeSantis remained unshaken and blamed the higher education system as protesters were swiftly escorted out of the room.
“This is [what’s] wrong with our college system right there. That’s Exhibit A,” DeSantis said, before continuing with the rest of his speech, in which he mentioned abolishing the Federal Department of Education. The book-banning politician also spoke on eradicating “wokeism” and repeatedly encouraged his supporters to attend the caucuses on Monday to vote.
University of Minnesota student John Higgins attended the event, despite being a registered Democrat, in hopes of hearing moderate stances. The first-time voter said that he disapproved of DeSantis’ platform on education and his “anti-woke agenda.”
“I don’t think he really represents what we should be pushing for as Americans,” Higgins said.
After the rally was over, Higgins shared that it was “so much worse than [expected].”
“I don’t understand why he’s obsessed with thinking that colleges indoctrinate people,” he said. “Trust me, there’s no indoctrination, and it’s not like colleges are overtly Democratic. I think it’s a ridiculous talking point, and it’s shocking to see that he gets so many supporters off of it.”
Activists from the Sunrise Movement disrupted other Republican candidates’ rallies across the state — a small but meaningful presence of the youth’s prime concerns even if the crowd didn’t appreciate left-leaning ideas.
Shiva Rajbhandari, a University of North Carolina student who was one of the three protesters accusing DeSantis of pocketing money from oil companies, believed that the Florida governor was “lying to the American public.”
“[DeSantis] undermines the reality of the climate crisis and has no plan to address the greatest threat to national security and the greatest threat to our well being,” Rajbhandari said. “We see that this room is packed with 60, 70, 80-year-olds. There are no young people here… It’s abundantly clear that these people don’t want our vote, so I don’t know why we would give it to them.”
Rajbhandari described the Sunrise Movement as a group of young people working to end fossil fuels with the goal of establishing a Green New Deal and transition into clean energy. The organization has chapters across the Midwest and consists largely of members who are students and minors too young to vote.
Emma Weber, a 16-year-old high school student from Colorado, traveled to Iowa with the organization to attend a Trump rally, and shared that the movement had been planning the protests for about a month in an attempt to make climate change a greater issue in the upcoming November elections.
“In Colorado, we’ve seen so many fires that are getting worse from climate change; one of them burned hundreds of homes in my community to the ground and evacuated my family,” Weber said. “It’s really clear that some politicians are not taking action on that and they don’t care about our futures — they care about the money.”
Older voters and caucus-goers displayed different priorities from DeSantis’ younger audiences, marking generational divides in politics. According to Pew Research Center, views on climate change differ depending on age, with Gen Z more likely to favor shifting away from fossil fuel usage than older people.
Unlike his similarly-aged peers from the Sunrise Movement, University of Northern Iowa student Stephen Blom shared that he is in favor of DeSantis’ climate policies and believes the Florida governor lacks support from younger generations because they don’t know him.
“[My peers] might just not know about him or just might have gotten misinformation from a different candidate,” Blom said.
Ariela Lara, a 17-year-old high school student from California, conducted a similar protest at a Trump rally in Indianola before security guards grabbed her arms and escorted her out of the building.
“I remember how determined I was to make Trump hear me,” Lara recalled in an interview. “I’m raising my voice so that it’s known how young people deserve politicians who care about our lives and communities, protecting our generation with a plan to stop climate change, and if I have to shout from the top of my lungs in a room full of ‘boos’ and ‘get out of here,’ so be it.”
The protests didn’t seem to be stopping voters from caucusing, according to Joel Tenney, an evangelical Trump supporter who also works as a caucus captain for Trump.
“I think every Iowan considers it their obligation because we are the first in the nation,” Tenney said. “We consider our obligation to show up to the caucus and the majority of those people are going to be Trump supporters, the most energetic and fiery of all the [supporters].”