Iowans weigh Trump's ongoing legal woes as they decide who to back in Monday's caucuses
From CNN's Arit John in Ames, Iowa
Teresa Garman has attended decades worth of Iowa caucuses, but views Monday’s meeting as the most consequential.
Despite forecasts predicting negative temperatures, the 86-year-old Ames resident said the cold wouldn’t deter her from showing up to back Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – even if she doesn’t think he’ll beat former President Donald Trump.
“I think Trump is probably going to win the Iowa caucus and hopefully DeSantis will be next,” Garman, a former Iowa state representative, said ahead of a DeSantis event here. She said she hoped the Florida governor would come in second “just in case Trump isn’t able to run.”
Trump – and his myriad legal troubles – have loomed large over the GOP presidential primary, especially as Republicans in the Hawkeye State make their final decision on who to back in Monday night’s caucuses. Polls have shown the former president with a commanding lead over the field both in Iowa and nationally, even as he faces four indictments and awaits a Supreme Court decision over efforts to remove him from the ballot in Colorado.
In interviews, Iowans expressed an array of opinions on Trump’s legal problems, from anger over what they say they believe is a “witch hunt,” echoing the former president’s criticism, to a desire to move on and focus on issues plaguing the country.
Trump’s rivals have taken different approaches to manage those views. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley refers to the “chaos” that follows the former president. DeSantis, who often says Trump “is running for his issues” while he runs on voters’ issues, has also argued the legal challenges would be a distraction in a general election.
Biden campaign watching Iowa "closely" as it prepares to take on Trump
From CNN's Betsy Klein
The Biden campaign is looking ahead to a general election matchup with former President Donald Trump as the GOP primary season begins in earnest Monday.
Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler said the campaign was "excited for the fight ahead" and would be "watching closely to see what emerges here tonight in Iowa, ready to provide the American people with the stark contrast between the president, who’s fighting for more freedom and more democracy, and these MAGA extremists led by Donald Trump, who want to tear down the fabric of American democracy."
Speaking during an appearance on “CNN This Morning” from Des Moines, Iowa, Tyler also echoed Biden and other top officials in casting the 2024 election as existential to the future of democracy, saying his team was "absolutely ready" to take on Trump if he wins as Republican nominee.
“We've been gearing up for that fight since launch in April 2023, and we're scaling up our operation right now, to meet the moment meet the challenge presented by Donald Trump and the threat that he represents to American democracy.”
Tyler downplayed any anxiety when pressed by CNN’s Kasie Hunt on the write-in campaign in New Hampshire, where Biden’s name is not physically on the primary ballot next week due to his efforts to shift the Democratic calendar to place South Carolina first.
“This campaign has made very clear that we're gonna follow the rules put in place by the Democratic National Committee," he said.
26 min ago
Here's how Iowa Republican caucusgoers vote for their preferred presidential candidate
From CNN's Ethan Cohen and Molly English
When the Iowa caucuses begin at 8 p.m. ET tonight, Republican caucusgoers will have an opportunity to listen to optional speeches from candidate representatives and then will vote for their preferred presidential candidate.
Then it’s down to business.
Here are key things to know about that vote — and how it works:
Every precinct can conduct the vote in its own way. The individual caucus chairs are given wide latitude in how to conduct this vote. There is no official ballot or list of authorized candidates. The only requirement is that voting should allow for some type of write-in procedure, because caucusgoers may vote for anyone.
No walking around and forming groups. Everything you may remember about delegates voting for their candidate by standing up in different corners of the room applies only to the Democratic caucuses — a process even they aren’t using in 2024. Republicans instead hold a simple secret ballot vote that includes no moving around.
No "viability thresholds" or multiple voting rounds. There’s only one round of voting in the GOP’s presidential preference contest, unlike in Democratic caucuses. This means that a candidate does not need to reach a certain vote threshold. Every caucus participant casts one vote, and that vote is counted in the precinct’s final tally.
Tabulating the vote. Once all the votes have been cast, the caucus chair or designee will tally the votes and transmit the results, otherwise known as the raw vote tally, to the Republican Party of Iowa’s caucus night headquarters. The Iowa GOP will keep a running tally of precinct results as they are sent in from around the state and release them to the news media throughout the night. This binding presidential preference vote is the only reportable or tangible result that comes out of the GOP caucuses.
Check out our voter guide to find out what the rules are, where you are.
26 min ago
Here's how 2024 Republicans spent more than $123 million on advertising in Iowa
From CNN's David Wright and Alex Leeds Matthews
Republican candidates and their allies have bombarded Iowa residents with more than $123 million in advertising, breaking the pace set during the 2020 caucuses.
The three leading Republican presidential candidates – Donald Trump, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis – and their allied super PACs account for more than 70% of all the ad spending in Iowa since the start of 2023, which amounts to more than $90 million.
The $123 million in ad spending far outpaces the $84 million that campaigns and groups had spent on advertising ahead of the 2020 Iowa caucuses, when Democrats were battling to become their party’s standard-bearer.
In recent weeks, Haley and DeSantis – who are jockeying to emerge as the leading alternative to Trump, the Iowa polling front-runner – have pummeled one another on the airwaves with blistering ads that accuse their opponent of failing to confront the economic and national security threat posed by China and attacking their records as governor.
All the while, they’ve largely steered clear of targeting Trump.
Analysis: How the Iowa caucuses became a chaotic start to 2024's political year
From CNN's Stephen Collinson
The storied history of the Iowa caucuses has never seen anything like this.
A fateful election year likely to put the country’s institutions to an extreme test opens Monday as the first-in-the-nation state shivers under a blast of perishing polar weather.
But it’s not stopping Donald Trump from telling his voters to go out and caucus even if they’re “sick as a dog,” while urging them to punish enemies he branded “cheaters” and “liars.” The former president, who left office in disgrace in January 2021, is seeking a bumper win to set him on the road to a third straight GOP nomination — and a possible return to the White House.
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley wants a jolt of momentum ahead of next week’s New Hampshire primary – her best bet for a shock win over Trump. And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is battling to keep his campaign alive.
But after months of polls, multimillion-dollar ad blitzes and a collision between an election and Trump’s legal morass, Iowans’ voices are the only ones that matter, although the weather may influence which of them is able to show up.
Read more about Collinson's analysis of the Iowa caucuses.
5 min ago
Here are 5 things to keep an eye on in Iowa's Republican presidential caucuses
From CNN's Eric Bradner
Campaign employees remove a sign for Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis following a campaign event in Davenport, Iowa, on Saturday. Nikhinson Julia/ABACA/Shutterstock
Iowa Republicans who are willing to brave record-low temperatures are set to kick off the party’s 2024 presidential nominating process with Monday night’s caucuses.
The Arctic cold largely froze the field in the race’s final days, with former President Donald Trump, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and others shortening their lists of scheduled events.
Now, Iowa voters will render the first verdict of the 2024 election, weighing in on which Republican should take on President Joe Biden in November.
Will Trump top 50%?
The big question about Trump’s performance isn’t just whether he will win — but whether he will do so in a fashion that demonstrates the GOP electorate has no appetite for a Trump alternative.
The race for second place
The most important question Monday night might be who finishes second — and whether that candidate does so in decisive fashion. National polls of likely Republican primary voters show Trump with the same commanding lead he’s held for months. But, even if it’s a long shot, a path for Haley to seriously challenge Trump has emerged in recent weeks: a win in New Hampshire, where a recent CNN poll showed her within single digits of the former president.
Does Iowa narrow the field?
The Iowa caucuses have a history of paring down both parties’ fields of presidential contenders. In 2012, former Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann dropped out after finishing sixth. In 2016, two former Iowa winners — former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee — exited after disappointing performances, as did Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.
Ahead of tonight's Iowa caucuses, poll shows Trump holds wide lead over GOP field
From CNN's Jennifer Agiesta
Supporters react as former President Donald Trump arrives at a rally in Indianola, Iowa, on Sunday. Andrew Harnik/AP
Former President Donald Trump holds a wide lead over his Republican presidential competitors among likely GOP caucusgoers in Iowa, the final Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom before Monday’s caucuses found.
Overall:
48% of likely caucusgoers say Trump would be their first choice;
20% name former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley;
16% name Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis;
And the rest of the field is below 10%.
Trump stood at 51% in the December DMR/NBC poll and 43% in October, with his chief rivals in the teens in both of those prior polls.
Haley’s numerical move to second place is within the margin of error. Neither her support nor DeSantis’ has changed significantly since the December poll, when DeSantis stood at 19% to Haley’s 16% in a survey with a 4.4 point error margin.
Campaign signs for Republican presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Ron Desantis line a road in front of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, on January 10. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Iowa GOP chair Jeff Kaufmann on Sunday predicted that despite the forecasted subzero temperatures and parts of Iowa hit by a blizzard over the weekend, there will be a “robust turnout” on Monday night’s caucuses.
“Temperatures are the least of my concern in terms of depressing turnout. Iowans know how to dress for that,” Kaufmann said, speaking to reporters at an event hosted Bloomberg in Des Moines.
“From what I’m hearing, and what I’m seeing in the rallies…I think it’s going to be a robust turnout,” he added.
Kaufmann, who has not endorsed a candidate, said “complacency” is the “number one worry."
Candidates – including frontrunner former President Donald Trump – have urged their supporters to brave the cold and caucus for them.
“Even if we did not have a poll where we have one of the one of the candidates way ahead, we always have to guard against complacency,” he said.
The severe weather conditions over the weekend forced the presidential hopefuls to either cancel events or switch to tele-town halls, creating a missed opportunity for candidates to connect in-person and deliver their closing message to undecided voters.
1 hr ago
The Iowa caucuses are set to be the coldest on record — by a lot
From CNN meteorologists Monica Garrett and Brandon Miller
Iowa will have their coldest caucuses ever on Monday, as a dangerous Arctic blast dives into the central US this weekend and last through early next week. Monday is expected to be the coldest January day for Iowa in at least five years, with wind chills as low as minus 40 Fahrenheit.
Iowans will wake up to temperatures more than 15 degrees below zero on Monday morning. Nearly the entire state will fail to climb above zero degrees Monday afternoon, the exception being the far southeastern portion of the state that may reach a degree or two above zero. This would be the first time since February of 2021 that the high temperature in Des Moines fails to reach zero degrees.
Add winds to this bitter cold and wind chill will reach life-threatening levels at minus 20 to minus 40 degrees for the entire day.
The forecast average daily temperature for Des Moines on Monday is minus 9.5 degrees, nearly 20 degrees colder than the previous coldest caucus night on January 19, 2004, when the average temperature was 9 degrees, according to CNN analysis of NWS data for Iowa caucuses. Iowa has held caucuses every four years since 1972 in either January or February.
Record-shattering cold caucuses will be in store for the rest of the state as well. Sioux City is forecast to average minus 10 degrees on Monday, more than 20 degrees colder than the 11 degree average for the caucus in 2004. Cedar Rapids is forecast to average minus 9 degrees and Davenport minus 8 degrees on Monday. Previous coldest caucuses there averaged 5.5 and 8 degrees respectively on January 24, 2000.
The GOP candidates: Former President Donald Trump, who polls show holds a wide lead over the GOP field in Iowa, is looking for a definitive win in the caucuses. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are aiming to beat expectations tonight and emerge as his top alternative. Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson are also in the race.
What's at stake: The outcome of the caucuses can help build or break candidates’ momentum as they vie to secure enough delegates to be the Republican Party's nominee and take on President Joe Biden in November.
Teresa Garman has attended decades worth of Iowa caucuses, but views Monday’s meeting as the most consequential.
Despite forecasts predicting negative temperatures, the 86-year-old Ames resident said the cold wouldn’t deter her from showing up to back Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – even if she doesn’t think he’ll beat former President Donald Trump.
“I think Trump is probably going to win the Iowa caucus and hopefully DeSantis will be next,” Garman, a former Iowa state representative, said ahead of a DeSantis event here. She said she hoped the Florida governor would come in second “just in case Trump isn’t able to run.”
Trump – and his myriad legal troubles – have loomed large over the GOP presidential primary, especially as Republicans in the Hawkeye State make their final decision on who to back in Monday night’s caucuses. Polls have shown the former president with a commanding lead over the field both in Iowa and nationally, even as he faces four indictments and awaits a Supreme Court decision over efforts to remove him from the ballot in Colorado.
In interviews, Iowans expressed an array of opinions on Trump’s legal problems, from anger over what they say they believe is a “witch hunt,” echoing the former president’s criticism, to a desire to move on and focus on issues plaguing the country.
Trump’s rivals have taken different approaches to manage those views. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley refers to the “chaos” that follows the former president. DeSantis, who often says Trump “is running for his issues” while he runs on voters’ issues, has also argued the legal challenges would be a distraction in a general election.
The Biden campaign is looking ahead to a general election matchup with former President Donald Trump as the GOP primary season begins in earnest Monday.
Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler said the campaign was "excited for the fight ahead" and would be "watching closely to see what emerges here tonight in Iowa, ready to provide the American people with the stark contrast between the president, who’s fighting for more freedom and more democracy, and these MAGA extremists led by Donald Trump, who want to tear down the fabric of American democracy."
Speaking during an appearance on “CNN This Morning” from Des Moines, Iowa, Tyler also echoed Biden and other top officials in casting the 2024 election as existential to the future of democracy, saying his team was "absolutely ready" to take on Trump if he wins as Republican nominee.
“We've been gearing up for that fight since launch in April 2023, and we're scaling up our operation right now, to meet the moment meet the challenge presented by Donald Trump and the threat that he represents to American democracy.”
Tyler downplayed any anxiety when pressed by CNN’s Kasie Hunt on the write-in campaign in New Hampshire, where Biden’s name is not physically on the primary ballot next week due to his efforts to shift the Democratic calendar to place South Carolina first.
“This campaign has made very clear that we're gonna follow the rules put in place by the Democratic National Committee," he said.
When the Iowa caucuses begin at 8 p.m. ET tonight, Republican caucusgoers will have an opportunity to listen to optional speeches from candidate representatives and then will vote for their preferred presidential candidate.
Then it’s down to business.
Here are key things to know about that vote — and how it works:
Every precinct can conduct the vote in its own way. The individual caucus chairs are given wide latitude in how to conduct this vote. There is no official ballot or list of authorized candidates. The only requirement is that voting should allow for some type of write-in procedure, because caucusgoers may vote for anyone.
No walking around and forming groups. Everything you may remember about delegates voting for their candidate by standing up in different corners of the room applies only to the Democratic caucuses — a process even they aren’t using in 2024. Republicans instead hold a simple secret ballot vote that includes no moving around.
No "viability thresholds" or multiple voting rounds. There’s only one round of voting in the GOP’s presidential preference contest, unlike in Democratic caucuses. This means that a candidate does not need to reach a certain vote threshold. Every caucus participant casts one vote, and that vote is counted in the precinct’s final tally.
Tabulating the vote. Once all the votes have been cast, the caucus chair or designee will tally the votes and transmit the results, otherwise known as the raw vote tally, to the Republican Party of Iowa’s caucus night headquarters. The Iowa GOP will keep a running tally of precinct results as they are sent in from around the state and release them to the news media throughout the night. This binding presidential preference vote is the only reportable or tangible result that comes out of the GOP caucuses.
Check out our voter guide to find out what the rules are, where you are.
Republican candidates and their allies have bombarded Iowa residents with more than $123 million in advertising, breaking the pace set during the 2020 caucuses.
The three leading Republican presidential candidates – Donald Trump, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis – and their allied super PACs account for more than 70% of all the ad spending in Iowa since the start of 2023, which amounts to more than $90 million.
The $123 million in ad spending far outpaces the $84 million that campaigns and groups had spent on advertising ahead of the 2020 Iowa caucuses, when Democrats were battling to become their party’s standard-bearer.
In recent weeks, Haley and DeSantis – who are jockeying to emerge as the leading alternative to Trump, the Iowa polling front-runner – have pummeled one another on the airwaves with blistering ads that accuse their opponent of failing to confront the economic and national security threat posed by China and attacking their records as governor.
All the while, they’ve largely steered clear of targeting Trump.
The storied history of the Iowa caucuses has never seen anything like this.
A fateful election year likely to put the country’s institutions to an extreme test opens Monday as the first-in-the-nation state shivers under a blast of perishing polar weather.
But it’s not stopping Donald Trump from telling his voters to go out and caucus even if they’re “sick as a dog,” while urging them to punish enemies he branded “cheaters” and “liars.” The former president, who left office in disgrace in January 2021, is seeking a bumper win to set him on the road to a third straight GOP nomination — and a possible return to the White House.
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley wants a jolt of momentum ahead of next week’s New Hampshire primary – her best bet for a shock win over Trump. And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is battling to keep his campaign alive.
But after months of polls, multimillion-dollar ad blitzes and a collision between an election and Trump’s legal morass, Iowans’ voices are the only ones that matter, although the weather may influence which of them is able to show up.
Read more about Collinson's analysis of the Iowa caucuses.
Campaign employees remove a sign for Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis following a campaign event in Davenport, Iowa, on Saturday. Nikhinson Julia/ABACA/Shutterstock
Iowa Republicans who are willing to brave record-low temperatures are set to kick off the party’s 2024 presidential nominating process with Monday night’s caucuses.
The Arctic cold largely froze the field in the race’s final days, with former President Donald Trump, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and others shortening their lists of scheduled events.
Now, Iowa voters will render the first verdict of the 2024 election, weighing in on which Republican should take on President Joe Biden in November.
Will Trump top 50%?
The big question about Trump’s performance isn’t just whether he will win — but whether he will do so in a fashion that demonstrates the GOP electorate has no appetite for a Trump alternative.
The race for second place
The most important question Monday night might be who finishes second — and whether that candidate does so in decisive fashion. National polls of likely Republican primary voters show Trump with the same commanding lead he’s held for months. But, even if it’s a long shot, a path for Haley to seriously challenge Trump has emerged in recent weeks: a win in New Hampshire, where a recent CNN poll showed her within single digits of the former president.
Does Iowa narrow the field?
The Iowa caucuses have a history of paring down both parties’ fields of presidential contenders. In 2012, former Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann dropped out after finishing sixth. In 2016, two former Iowa winners — former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee — exited after disappointing performances, as did Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.
Supporters react as former President Donald Trump arrives at a rally in Indianola, Iowa, on Sunday. Andrew Harnik/AP
Former President Donald Trump holds a wide lead over his Republican presidential competitors among likely GOP caucusgoers in Iowa, the final Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom before Monday’s caucuses found.
Overall:
48% of likely caucusgoers say Trump would be their first choice;
20% name former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley;
16% name Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis;
And the rest of the field is below 10%.
Trump stood at 51% in the December DMR/NBC poll and 43% in October, with his chief rivals in the teens in both of those prior polls.
Haley’s numerical move to second place is within the margin of error. Neither her support nor DeSantis’ has changed significantly since the December poll, when DeSantis stood at 19% to Haley’s 16% in a survey with a 4.4 point error margin.
Campaign signs for Republican presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Ron Desantis line a road in front of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, on January 10. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Iowa GOP chair Jeff Kaufmann on Sunday predicted that despite the forecasted subzero temperatures and parts of Iowa hit by a blizzard over the weekend, there will be a “robust turnout” on Monday night’s caucuses.
“Temperatures are the least of my concern in terms of depressing turnout. Iowans know how to dress for that,” Kaufmann said, speaking to reporters at an event hosted Bloomberg in Des Moines.
“From what I’m hearing, and what I’m seeing in the rallies…I think it’s going to be a robust turnout,” he added.
Kaufmann, who has not endorsed a candidate, said “complacency” is the “number one worry."
Candidates – including frontrunner former President Donald Trump – have urged their supporters to brave the cold and caucus for them.
“Even if we did not have a poll where we have one of the one of the candidates way ahead, we always have to guard against complacency,” he said.
The severe weather conditions over the weekend forced the presidential hopefuls to either cancel events or switch to tele-town halls, creating a missed opportunity for candidates to connect in-person and deliver their closing message to undecided voters.
Iowa will have their coldest caucuses ever on Monday, as a dangerous Arctic blast dives into the central US this weekend and last through early next week. Monday is expected to be the coldest January day for Iowa in at least five years, with wind chills as low as minus 40 Fahrenheit.
Iowans will wake up to temperatures more than 15 degrees below zero on Monday morning. Nearly the entire state will fail to climb above zero degrees Monday afternoon, the exception being the far southeastern portion of the state that may reach a degree or two above zero. This would be the first time since February of 2021 that the high temperature in Des Moines fails to reach zero degrees.
Add winds to this bitter cold and wind chill will reach life-threatening levels at minus 20 to minus 40 degrees for the entire day.
The forecast average daily temperature for Des Moines on Monday is minus 9.5 degrees, nearly 20 degrees colder than the previous coldest caucus night on January 19, 2004, when the average temperature was 9 degrees, according to CNN analysis of NWS data for Iowa caucuses. Iowa has held caucuses every four years since 1972 in either January or February.
Record-shattering cold caucuses will be in store for the rest of the state as well. Sioux City is forecast to average minus 10 degrees on Monday, more than 20 degrees colder than the 11 degree average for the caucus in 2004. Cedar Rapids is forecast to average minus 9 degrees and Davenport minus 8 degrees on Monday. Previous coldest caucuses there averaged 5.5 and 8 degrees respectively on January 24, 2000.
