COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley pushed across ice-cold Iowa Saturday to find voters open to an alternative to former President Donald Trump with just two days before the state’s caucuses open the Republican primary calendar.
Trump canceled his two in-person rallies Saturday due to a blizzard blanketing much of the state, scheduling two virtual “tele-rallies” instead. That left DeSantis and Haley, the two strongest candidates of the other Republicans competing in Iowa, with the chance to meet voters in person at several sites. Both were planning to finish the day with events in the Mississippi River town of Davenport.
Trump is the heavy front-runner in Monday’s caucuses. Perhaps more important than the margin of Trump's expected victory is whether either of his remaining top rivals can claim a clear second-place finish and gain momentum as the race moves forward to New Hampshire and other states. DeSantis in particular is under great pressure in Iowa given his campaign's heavy bet on a strong finish in the caucuses.
"You're going to pack so much more punch on Monday night than in any other election you'll ever be able to participate in,"the Florida governor told about 60 voters at his first event in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on the western edge of the state.
DeSantis is hoping for more voters like Michael Durham, a former Trump supporter who braved sub-freezing temperatures to hear the Florida governor and plans to caucus for him Monday night.
"He's just kind of no nonsense,” said Durham, a 47-year-old from Council Bluffs. Durham praised DeSantis for opening Florida schools during the COVID-19 pandemic and challenging federal government power. “He is who he is. He doesn't make any apologies for the way he thinks."
Other Iowans showed why DeSantis and Haley, the former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina governor, still have work to do in their respective final pushes.
Courtney Raines, a special education teacher, came to hear Haley on Saturday morning and said she would try to see DeSantis later in the day. "I'd like to know how she's going to handle the border crisis and mitigate the racial divide," said Raines, who said she was adopted from South Korea at age 2 and is concerned about the divisiveness 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 conservative Koch Brothers' network, canvassed the state through the winter storm on behalf of Haley.
Patti Parlee, a 65-year-old accountant from Urbandale, was among the Iowans who were visited at home Saturday by AFP canvassers. But Parlee said she is choosing between Trump and DeSantis and likely won’t make a decision until Monday night, when she will hear the two candidates' representatives make a pitch on their behalf at her caucus site.
"That's what the caucuses are all about is people get to speak for their candidates," Parlee said. "And we have to keep in mind: This isn't the final election. It goes on from here."
Parlee said she believes DeSantis has not gotten fair treatment from political media, while Trump has not been treated fairly by prosecutors who have charged him in four separate criminal cases. She said she loved Trump's policies during his administration but thinks he sometimes acts like a “fifth-grader.”
"I almost want to vote DeSantis just to say yes, he should be getting more support than it seems like he is," Parlee said. "I almost want to vote Trump just to say: We know that all this bullcrap out there is bullcrap."
Trump, meanwhile, is looking for as wide a margin of victory as possible on Monday, with his campaign aides arguing for months that the former president can become the presumptive nominee early in the primary calendar with wide margins that keep DeSantis and Haley from mounting a 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.
While Trump was delayed returning to the state and his Saturday rallies canceled, Kari Lake, the failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate who is now running for Senate, paid a visit to the campaign's Urbandale, Iowa, campaign headquarters, where dozens of volunteers were gathered making calls.
Lake, who grew up in Iowa and is one of Trump’s most vocal supporters, made several calls herself after delivering remarks and taking questions from the crowd, which included volunteers from Florida and Texas.
"The Republican caucus that’s going to happen on Monday night is going to send a shockwave. We're going to see such huge numbers," she said.
After days of storm conditions, Monday’s weather is expected to be the coldest for any caucus day in history, with temperatures falling below 0 degrees Fahrenheit when Republicans are supposed to head to their caucus sites to hear pitches for the candidates and cast their ballots.
Aides for multiple campaigns and longtime Iowa political observers have suggested the weather could sharply depress turnout. Republican caucus turnout peaked at more than 180,000 in 2016, Trump’s first campaign. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz won the caucuses narrowly that year. Trump’s campaign has put considerably more effort this time into building a caucus turnout structure.
Carroll Hinchion, a 30-year-old independent voter, is considering caucusing with Republicans on Monday. Hinchion voted for Democratic President Joe Biden, a Democrat, over Trump in 2020 but is now looking at alternatives, saying she would not support Trump but could still end up supporting Biden.
She came to hear DeSantis on Saturday morning, explaining that she is especially interested in candidates’ plans for mental health care services in America.
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Kinnard reported from Cedar Falls, Iowa, and Colvin reported from Urbandale, Iowa. Barrow reported from Atlanta.