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Post by Webster on Jan 15, 2024 16:19:46 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Iowans are set to brave subzero temperatures on Monday when they arrive at their caucus sites at 7pm to formally kick off the process to choose their nominee. In terms of pure numbers, the Iowa caucuses won’t have much of a role in determining who the Republican nominee is. The state allocates 40 delegates in the Republican nominating contest, roughly just 1.6% of the more than 2,400 that are up for grabs. But that small total belies the outsized influence the state can have on US presidential politics. For more than half a century, Iowa has come to occupy a near-mythological place in American politics – becoming known as the place where underdogs can become serious contenders and where dreams of the White House can die. The rural state’s voters often reward retail politicking, giving hope to candidates who visit its 99 counties to shake hands and give stump speeches. Since the 1970s, its caucuses have been the first nominating contest in each presidential cycle. Candidates crisscross the state in hopes of exceeding expectations and gaining momentum. And while it does not always pick the eventual nominee – Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee have all won there – victories there have been rocket fuel to candidates like Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama. Iowa is not first because it’s important. It’s important because it’s first, said Dennis Goldford, a professor at Drake University in Des Moines and the co-author of The Iowa Precinct Caucuses: The Making of a Media Event. “The morning after the caucuses, Iowa falls off the face of the earth.”
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Post by Webster on Jan 15, 2024 16:22:05 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Trump holds dominant lead ahead of Iowa caucuses, poll findsDonald Trump looks set to win Iowa’s first-in-nation vote in the Republican presidential nomination race by a record margin tonight. A final poll by renowned Iowa pollster Ann Selzer published on Saturday night shows the former president holding a nearly 30-point lead over his rivals. The final NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa poll before today’s GOP caucuses shows Trump with the support of 48% of likely caucus-goers, followed by Nikki Haley at 20%, Ron DeSantis at 16% and Vivek Ramaswamy at 8%. If Trump’s current lead holds, it would be the largest margin of victory for a non-incumbent competing in Iowa’s Republican presidential caucuses. The current record margin, 13 points, was set by Bob Dole in 1988.
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Post by Webster on Jan 15, 2024 16:22:49 GMT -5
(The Guardian)[ Florida senator Marco Rubio formally endorsed Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign on Sunday, effectively snubbing his state’s own governor Ron DeSantis. In a social media post, Rubio cited his work with Trump to expand child tax credit as well as sanctions placed on Cuba and Venezuela as reasons for throwing his support behind the former president. Rubio added: I support Trump because that kind of leadership is the ONLY way we will get the extraordinary actions needed to fix the disaster Biden has created.Rubio previously ran against Trump in 2016, during which he called him a “con artist” who had “no ideas of any substance” before dropping out after losing the Florida primary. Trump, meanwhile, repeatedly taunted Rubio with the nickname “Little Marco”. Rubio’s endorsement means that both of Florida’s Republican senators have opted not to back their own governor. Rick Scott endorsed Trump in November.
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Post by Webster on Jan 15, 2024 16:26:43 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Trump, Haley, DeSantis in big test in freezing IowaIowa Republicans will brave brutally cold temperatures on Monday evening to participate in the state’s presidential caucuses, as Donald Trump remains the clear frontrunner in the race for his party’s nomination. The final results will depend on turnout, which could be acutely impacted by the weather. After a blizzard swept through Iowa on Friday, many roads remained covered in snow as temperatures dropped well below freezing. Trump acknowledged on Saturday that he was concerned about the weather affecting caucus turnout but expressed confidence in his supporters’ dedication. “It’s going to be cold. It’s not going to be pleasant,” DeSantis said at a campaign event in West Des Moines on Saturday. -- If you’re willing to brave the elements and be there for the couple hours that you have to be there, if you’re willing to do that and you’re willing to fight for me on Monday night, then as president I’ll be fighting for you for the next eight years.Even as the National Weather Service warned of “life-threatening” cold, Iowa voters largely shrugged off questions about how they would reach their caucus sites. “People in the country live like this all the time,” said Abbey Sindt, a caucus-goer who attended Haley’s town hall in Ames on Sunday. “So it’s really not that big of a deal, in my opinion.” Max Richardson, who also attended the town hall, agreed with Sindt, saying, Everyone’s shoveled out. Everyone’s getting the ice melt down. It’s just a question of, can you get the car there?
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Post by Webster on Jan 15, 2024 16:30:31 GMT -5
A supporter of former Donald Trump places a placard in a pile of snow as he braves the below zero temperatures to attend a rally in Indianola, Iowa. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images Former South Carolina Governor and Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley campaigns in Ames, Iowa, on Sunday. Photograph: Alex Wroblewski/UPI/REX/Shutterstock
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Post by Webster on Jan 15, 2024 16:36:29 GMT -5
(The Guardian) A cold coming we had of it. Icy winds blow across the plains, numbing the face and cutting to the bone. Stranded cars and tractor trailers lie abandoned at the side of highways. Snow is piled high on the side of every road in the state capital, where giant icicles hang off buildings. Candidates’ yard signs and children’s playgrounds have been enveloped by a white blanket. Welcome to Iowa, often described as the centre of the political universe at this stage of the US electoral cycle, but currently feeling more like the outer reaches of our solar system. It is here, amid wind chills of around -40F (-40C), that Monday will witness the dawn of the 2024 presidential election, the first since the insurrection of 6 January 2021, when US democracy itself hung by a thread. The brutal weather has proved timely for reporters in need of something to talk about ahead of some particularly anti-climactic Iowa caucuses. Democrats are not actively engaged this time, while the Republican race has never been such a foregone conclusion: Donald Trump in an avalanche. The only suspenseful questions on what is expected to be the coldest caucus night ever are: will Trump exceed 50% of the vote and will Nikki Haley, a former US ambassador to the UN, eclipse the one-time rising star Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida?
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Post by Webster on Jan 15, 2024 16:37:44 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Ron DeSantis has dismissed Florida senator Marco Rubio’s backing of Donald Trump as evidence that the former president is in line with the “DC establishment”. As we reported earlier, Rubio endorsed Trump on Sunday despite previously calling him a “con artist” who was not worthy of the presidency. Speaking to CNN this morning, DeSantis pointed out that he had endorsements from more state lawmakers than Trump and Nikki Haley. He said: Donald Trump is the party of Washington DC establishment. They have lined up behind him. I am the candidate that would be a change agent in Washington DC. And I like that contrast.He said tonight’s caucuses will create a clear, binary choice for voters, adding: “I think people are going to say there’s only two possible nominees: Donald Trump or Governor DeSantis”. - We’re the only ones that have strong support amongst bedrock Republican conservative voters, and to win a Republican nomination, you have got to be able to do that. I think Iowa will show that very clearly.
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Post by Webster on Jan 15, 2024 16:42:11 GMT -5
Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis during a campaign event at an event space in Ankeny, Iowa, USA, on Sunday. Photograph: Justin Lane/EPA Nikki Haley, right, inspects scones after a campaign event at The Bread Board in Pella, Iowa, on Monday. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP
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Post by Webster on Jan 15, 2024 16:44:12 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Here’s more from Ron DeSantis’s interview with CNN this morning, in which he said he doesn’t regret previously supporting Donald Trump, who endorsed him ahead of his first run for Florida governor. “When he was president, I supported his policies. He was under assault from the left and the media,” DeSantis said. -- I was happy to do that, because he was our chance to get things done in a positive direction.But this time is different, he added. -- When you’re in a primary situation, I want Republicans to do well. If someone’s endorsed me, great. If they haven’t, if they’re doing a good job, I’m happy for that. I want our party to do well. Donald Trump is not that way. He wants to trash Governor [Kim] Reynolds who is gold here in Iowa, simply because she’s on my team.
Fewer than half of likely Republican caucus-goers in Iowa identify with Donald Trump’s Maga, or “Make America Great Again”, base, according to a new poll. The Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa poll shows 40% of registered voters who said they are likely to attend the Iowa caucuses identify themselves as either “Ultra Maga” (18%) or “Regular Maga” (22%) when asked how they view the phrase. Another 38% said they are neutral to the Maga movement, and 17% are anti-Maga. Sixty percent of likely caucus goers who said Trump is their first choice described themselves as either “Ultra Maga” or “Regular Maga”. By contrast, only 11% of those who selected Nikki Haley as their first choice identified with the Maga brand.
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Post by Webster on Jan 15, 2024 16:45:43 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Jan 15, 2024 16:53:35 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Trump steps up attacks against Haley and DeSantis on morning of Iowa caucusesDonald Trump stepped up attacks against his rivals on Monday morning ahead of tonight’s caucuses in Iowa. On his Truth Social site, Trump knocked his former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, as “Globalist Rino” (short for Republican In Name Only) who is “weak on the Border, and will always be willing to obliterate Social Security and Medicare, while at the same time raising your taxes”. Trump also described voting for Vivek Ramaswamy as a “wasted vote”, adding that the tech entrepreneur conducted “deceitful campaign tricks” and “played it too ‘cute’ with us”. Economy, border, foreign policy: key issues as Iowans head to caucusDavid Erlacher hadn’t made up his mind about who he was going to caucus for when he showed up to a Cedar Rapids brewery to hear Ron DeSantis speak on Sunday afternoon. But inside his jacket pocket was a handwritten list of issues that mattered most to him. At the top was the economy, followed by the southern border. He then listed a series of foreign policy conflicts, including the Houthi attacks in Yemen, the war in Israel, and the war between Ukraine and Russia. “The world’s a dumpster fire right now,” Erlacher, a 76-year-old retiree who lives in Cedar Rapids, said. -- We got to try and find some water to throw on it. I’m not sure how that’s gonna happen. I’m just glad there’s smarter people than myself out there to do it.Those three priorities – the economy, the border and international instability – echoed what many Iowa voters said were their top issues as they prepare to caucus in the US’s first nominating contest on Monday, with Donald Trump, Nikki Haley and DeSantis at the top. A November Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll found that 81% of likely caucus-goers listed the economy as a “very important issue” and 80% of caucus-goers listed “immigration and border security as “very important issues” in the same poll. Concerns over the economy underscore a significant challenge for Joe Biden as he seeks a second term. Traditional metrics have shown that the US economy is strong, but nearly two-thirds of Americans are unhappy with it, according to a September Harris survey conducted by the Guardian.
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Post by Webster on Jan 15, 2024 16:56:04 GMT -5
(The Guardian) “It’s caucus day. Get excited!” Nikki Haley told a crowd of supporters as they packed into a diner near Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Speaking directly to those serving as caucus captains, Haley asked them to “speak from the heart” in their Monday night speeches, AP reported. The former South Carolina governor and US ambassador to the UN plans to make several stops in central Iowa ahead of tonight’s votes, including making an appearance at a caucus location before heading to her campaign celebration.
While everyone will be watching who Iowa Republicans select as their nominee tonight, Joe Biden’s re-election campaign is in town to, in their words, “remind voters what’s at stake this November as Donald Trump and Maga Republicans launch an all-out assault on Americans’ freedoms”. They’ve got some Democratic heavy hitters speaking to the press this afternoon at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, including the Illinois governor JB Pritzker, the Minnesota senator Tina Smith and Jeffrey Katzenberg, co-chair of the Biden-Harris campaign’s national advisory board.
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Post by Webster on Jan 15, 2024 16:56:45 GMT -5
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Post by Newsman on Jan 15, 2024 20:11:23 GMT -5
...welcome to caucus night in Iowa as the 2024 presidential campaign kicks off in earnest...(The Guardian) Caucuses in Iowa kick offThe caucuses are now under way. Voters are gathering at schools, steakhouses, churches, and even living rooms and grain elevators to decide the Republican presidential nominee. Today marks the first round of voting in the 2024 presidential primary. Eligible voters, who have braved brutally cold conditions today to show up at their caucus location, will discuss candidates and issues with their neighbors. Representatives will speak up in behalf of their preferred candidates. Within an hour or so, caucusgoers write their preferred candidate’s name on a slip of paper and hand it to the caucus chair of the caucus, who tallies the votes and release results to the state party, which will tally all the results. Candidates are then assigned delegates to the Republican national convention proportional to their share of the statewide votes.
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Post by Webster on Jan 15, 2024 20:17:42 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Correspondent Sam Levine: I’m at a caucus site inside the Kingston steakhouse in Cedar Rapids, and Brett Mason, who’s manning the registration table here, just informed caucusgoers that they couldn’t get the room unless they bought hors d’oeuvres. So the county GOP party bought everyone free hors d’oeuvres that are being served on a buffet. People are now flocking to it. “The bar is open but that’s your own wallet,” he said. Correspondent Chris Stein: I’ve just arrived at the Heartland Co-op grain elevator, which is the caucus site for Malcolm, Iowa, a town of a few hundred people located 62 miles east of Des Moines. So far, about a dozen cacusgoers are in the chilly, spartan basement of the grain elevator’s office, where the caucus is to be held. Malcolm is located in Poweshiek county, which is among the rural Iowa counties that trended Democratic through Bill Clinton and Barack Obama’s term, but shifted Republican after Donald Trump ran in 2016. The county, and Malcolm itself, voted for him in both the 2016 and in 2020 general elections. We’re going to find out tonight if the town’s Republicans think he is the right candidate to take on Joe Biden in November.
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