BLUFFS COUNCIL, Iowa. Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley crossed freezing Iowa on Saturday to find voters open to an alternative to former President Donald Trump just two days before the state’s caucuses open the Republican primary calendar.
Trump canceled his two in-person rallies on Saturday due to a snowstorm that blanketed much of the state and instead scheduled two virtual “tele-rallies.” That left DeSantis and Haley, the two strongest candidates among the other Republicans competing in Iowa, with the opportunity to meet voters in person at several sites. The two planned to end the day with events in the Mississippi River town of Davenport.
Trump is the big favorite in Monday’s caucuses. Perhaps more important than Trump’s expected margin of victory is whether any of his remaining primary rivals can claim a clear second place and gain momentum as the race moves toward New Hampshire and other states. DeSantis in particular is under great pressure in Iowa given his campaign’s strong bet on a strong outcome in the caucuses.
“On Monday night they will be much stronger than any other election they can participate in,” the Florida governor told about 60 voters at his first event in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on the west coast. state edge.
DeSantis hopes to have more voters like Michael Durham, a former Trump supporter who braved freezing temperatures to hear from Florida’s governor and plans to caucus for him Monday night.
“It’s not nonsense,” said Durham, a 47-year-old from Council Bluffs. Durham praised DeSantis for opening schools in Florida during the COVID-19 pandemic and challenging the power of the federal government. “He is who he is. He does not apologize for his way of thinking.”
Other Iowans showed why DeSantis and Haley, a former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina governor, still have work to do in their respective final efforts.
Courtney Raines, a special education teacher, came to hear from Haley on Saturday morning and said she would try to see DeSantis later that day. “I’d like to know how you’re going to handle the border crisis and mitigate the racial divide,” said Raines, who said she was adopted from South Korea when she was 2 years old and is concerned about the divide she perceives among Americans today. .
Haley told Raines and other potential caucusgoers in Cedar Falls that they have a chance to “make history” and “right the ship in America.”
Americans for Prosperity, the political arm of the Koch brothers’ conservative network, toured the state during the winter storm on Haley’s behalf.
Patti Parlee, a 65-year-old accountant from Urbandale, was among Iowans visited at her home Saturday by AFP agents. But Ella Parlee said she is choosing between Trump and DeSantis and she probably won’t make a decision until Monday night, when she will hear representatives of the two candidates make a proposal in her name on the website of the her caucus.
“That’s what caucuses are about: people can speak on behalf of their candidates,” Parlee said. “And we have to keep in mind: this is not the final election. It continues from here.”
Parlee said he believes DeSantis has not received fair treatment from the political media, while Trump has not been treated fairly by prosecutors who charged him in four separate criminal cases. She said she loved Trump’s policies during his administration, but she believes he sometimes acts like a “fifth grader.”
“I almost want to vote for DeSantis just to say yes, he should get more support than he lets on,” Parlee said. “I almost want to vote for Trump just to say: We know that all this nonsense out there is nonsense.”
Trump, meanwhile, is seeking the widest possible margin of victory on Monday, and his campaign aides have argued for months that the former president can become the presumptive nominee at the start of the primary calendar with wide margins preventing DeSantis and Haley from riding. a victory. sustained threat. But his advisers have also privately reminded reporters that no Republican presidential candidate has won a contested Iowa caucus by more than 12 points since Bob Dole in 1988.
As Trump delayed his return to the state and his Saturday rallies were canceled, Kari Lake, the failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate now running for the Senate, visited campaign headquarters in Urbandale, Iowa, where dozens of volunteers were gathering. making calls. .
Lake, who grew up in Iowa and is one of Trump’s most ardent supporters, made several calls herself after delivering remarks and answering questions from the crowd, which included volunteers from Florida and Texas.
“The Republican caucus on Monday night will cause a stir. “We are going to see huge numbers,” he said.
After days of storms, Monday’s weather is expected to be the coldest for any caucus day in history, with temperatures dropping below 0 degrees Fahrenheit as Republicans are supposed to head to their caucus sites to listen to the candidates’ presentations and cast your votes.
Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks was rear-ended Saturday by a semi-truck while en route to Haley’s event in Iowa City, according to Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson, who spoke to the crowd at Miller-Meeks’ venue. Miller-Meeks said in a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, that she did not require medical attention.
Multiple campaign aides and longtime Iowa political observers have suggested the weather could dramatically reduce turnout. Participation in the Republican caucus peaked at more than 180,000 in 2016, Trump’s first campaign. Texas Senator Ted Cruz narrowly won the caucuses that year. The Trump campaign has put much more effort this time into building a structure for caucus participation.
Carroll Hinchion, a 30-year-old independent voter, is considering meeting with Republicans on Monday. Hinchion voted for Democratic President Joe Biden instead of Trump in 2020, but now he is looking for alternatives and says he wouldn’t support Trump but he could still end up supporting Biden.
She came to hear from DeSantis on Saturday morning and explained that she is especially interested in the candidates’ plans for mental health care services in the United States.
But after DeSantis spoke, he said he was unmoved: “Nothing he talked about resonated with me.”
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Kinnard reported from Cedar Falls, Iowa, and Colvin reported from Urbandale, Iowa. Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writers Thomas Beaumont in Iowa City, Iowa, and Hannah Fingerhut in Davenport, Iowa, contributed to this report.