Indianola—It was so cold outside of former President Donald Trump’s commit to caucus event here in central Iowa Sunday morning that when another reporter spilled coffee on her coat ahead of press check-in, it immediately froze on her jacket.
Yet here Trump’s supporters are in full force, braving the negative eighteen-degree cold and face-burning windchill to watch him speak one more time before Monday’s contest. They’re confident that the four criminal indictments the former president is facing will not dissuade independent and moderate voters from supporting him in November should he win the nomination, nor, they say, will efforts to kick him off the ballot in multiple states have any negative effect at the ballot box.
“This is election interference, and anybody who’s paying attention can see that,” says caucus precinct captain Lisa Bourne of Winterset, Iowa.
“It’s truly just a way to distract people. This is all this is. It’s smoke and mirrors,” says Robin Copeland of Pleasant Hill, Iowa.
“He’s innocent,” insists New Virginia resident Peggy Hutchison, whose nose hairs and upper lip hairs were covered with tiny icicles from Sunday’s subzero temperatures. This is her eighth Trump rally to date: “I went to January 6 and I just love Trump. I think he got robbed from being president last four years.”
Polls suggest Trump’s legal troubles haven’t hurt his double-digit lead over his rivals in Iowa. The GOP front-runner is the preferred choice of 48 percent of likely Republican caucus-goers in the lead-up to Monday’s contest, according to a NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll released Saturday evening, the highest support for a frontrunner ever recorded in the poll. That same survey found his rivals polling far, far behind, with Haley at 20 percent, DeSantis at 16 percent, and Ramaswamy at 8 percent.
Trump’s primary victory is now seen as inevitable by many congressional candidates, lawmakers, and even some former rivals, though no votes have been cast. It’s no wonder then that North Dakota governor and ex-presidential candidate Doug Burgum, who suspended his presidential race in December after hardly registering in early state polls, took the stage on Sunday in Indianola to endorse him.
But the former president’s campaign team is urging supporters not to be complacent. A pre-caucus instruction video that played before the former president’s Sunday remarks acknowledged Trump’s polling lead but reminded them that they “cannot leave anything to chance.”
Beyond Monday’s arctic forecast, another wild card that could play into this year’s caucus turnout question is the Democratic National Committee’s decision to strip Iowa of its first-in-the-nation status in the party’s presidential primary calendar. “They deserted you,” Trump said Sunday afternoon of the DNC’s decision in a characteristic grievance-filled speech that urged his supporters to brave the cold Monday evening.
No matter the weather, Trump’s die-hard fans will be there on caucus night, says Des Moines resident Sydney Turner: “I would crawl if I had to.”