Iowa will host the first-in-the-nation caucuses this Tuesday and candidates are making their last plea to voters ahead of Iowa’s presidential caucuses, reports Lisa Desjardins for NEXSTAR from Iowa’s caucuses field.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is travelling across his state in an attempt to unseat Donald Trump as Republican presidential nominee in Florida’s Republican primary, though even with all his legal troubles the president remains far ahead in polls.
Ron DeSantis
Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley traversed frozen Iowa on Saturday, looking for voters willing to consider alternatives to former President Donald Trump ahead of Monday’s Republican caucuses. Both candidates hope a strong showing here could cut into Trump’s lead on the GOP side and give them an advantage in winning an outright nomination.
DeSantis has spent his summer rebuilding an unstability campaign that initially struggled. Iowa caucuses became the focus of his strategy change and DeSantis has made Iowa caucuses his top priority – visiting each county (an achievement he likens to doing “the full Chuck Grassley”) while tapping supporters in bars, manufacturing plants and small shops across Iowa. Kentucky Rep Thomas Massie lent support with impressions of Trump at events while Alec Hernandez of 2024NBC News contributed this report from Iowa.
Nikki Haley
Nikki Haley would need a strong showing in Iowa to challenge Donald Trump in New Hampshire, which holds its second nominating contest on Jan. 2. To do this effectively, she must win at least the primary vote and not fall to third-place status there, or her campaign would likely suffer irreparably.
Haley is accomplishing that, even as she tempers her expectations. The former South Carolina governor is winning support from voters like Meg Courter who volunteered to organize their neighborhood in Iowa for Haley even though she has never done such an act before.
A Suffolk University poll released Thursday indicated Haley had edged ahead of DeSantis for second place and attracted more enthusiastic supporters than either DeSantis or Vivek Ramaswamy, her main opponent. Nearly 25% of Haley supporters expressed extreme enthusiasm about caucusing for her, compared with only 13% for DeSantis – this indicates a large turnout can be expected with ease!
Ted Cruz
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz emerged from his campaign bus and entered a Jefferson community center with Heidi by his side, greeting a more intimate than anticipated gathering of reporters – yet wasn’t complaining.
He spent 56 days campaigning in Iowa during this caucuses cycle, visiting all 99 counties – an achievement no other candidates were able to match. He advocated a staunchly conservative platform against Washington and Democratic establishment figures while appealing to evangelical conservatives and Tea Party supporters alike.
Cruz has made it clear he takes pride in upholding strict ideological boundaries, with strong support among “very conservative” Republicans – making up roughly four out of ten caucus attendees – as well as “somewhat conservative” voters; this demographic could prove key in an tight race situation.
Donald Trump
Iowa will host its Republican caucuses to select their presidential nominee, where former President Obama holds a significant lead in public opinion polls and should win easily. But an unexpected defeat could open the door for rivals such as DeSantis and Haley to extend the nomination battle beyond January 15 in New Hampshire and elsewhere.
In the final Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa caucus poll prior to Monday’s vote, Donald Trump led by an overwhelming margin, with 48% of likely Republican caucusgoers selecting him as their first choice, followed by former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley (20%) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (16%). On Saturday due to inclement weather he cancelled two rallies but hosted an online town hall-style event hosted by Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird instead; his campaign released several ads criticizing Cruz over his immigration proposals as being beholden to donors – both strategies which resulted in cancellation of two rallies due to weather-induced cancellation.
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