Winter storm mars Republican primary
Donald Trump has a commanding lead based on polls with Nikki Haley in far second
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Donald Trump has a commanding lead based on polls with Nikki Haley in far second
Voters in the midwestern state of Iowa venture into sub-zero temperatures Monday to kick off the United States Republican presidential nomination race with its caucuses which determine the conservative party’s candidate.
Former president and frontrunning bet Donald Trump is going to the caucuses with a 48 percent lead to the nearest rival, ex-United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, who overtook Florida Governor Ron DeSantis with a 20 percent support against the latter’s 16 percent.
If Trump’s current lead holds on caucus night, it will be the largest margin of victory for a nonincumbent competing in Iowa’s Republican presidential caucuses, NBC News reported. The current record margin, 13 points, was set by Bob Dole in 1988, according to NBC.
Responding to the poll’s release, Trump urged his supporters to get out and caucus next week despite frigid blizzard conditions.
“Our grassroots supporters have put us in position to win, and now we have to show up to Caucus for President Trump on Monday and get the job done,” he wrote in a statement.
Iowa is a notoriously poor predictor of the eventual nominee, but it is considered crucial for winnowing the field and as a springboard to the next few battlegrounds.
The Republican primary also features a number of low-polling candidates, including biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who has promised a third-place finish in Iowa but didn’t qualify for the final televised debate.
Iowa’s Democrats will also attend caucuses — meetings at which local members of a political party gather to register their candidate preferences — on Monday but will vote by mail from January until March.
Biden is expected to comfortably defeat self-help author Marianne Williamson and Minnesota congressman Dean Phillips.
Iowans may have to contend with the coldest conditions in the modern era of presidential election campaigns, with blizzards and a potential wind chill of -32 degrees Celsius forecast.
Haley and Ron DeSantis were forced to cancel appearances in the home stretch while Trump cancelled three rallies but will hold a campaign event on Sunday in Indianola, south of Iowa.
The winter storm is unleashing blizzard conditions and severe thunderstorms, with damaging winds, heavy rain and brutal cold expected across the eastern half of the US, according to CNN.
Winter weather alerts have been sent Friday to more than 70 million people across the country.
A blast of Arctic air will spread through the central US on the heels of this storm, starting Friday night in the northern Plains, where temperatures could drop as low as 30 degrees below zero, CNN added.
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