The kickoff of the U.S. Republican primaries will be today with caucuses in Iowa, where heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures are expected to affect voter turnout.
However, many would feel brutally cold and it is the feeling that such a process might not matter so much this year, when all polls point to the same name.
In this cycle, former President Donald Trump is the frontrunner, consolidating his lead in the race with a nearly 30-point lead over his closest rival, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who passed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
The caucuses in the small Midwestern state are a distinct process where, unlike other elections, it is the party and not the state that organizes and runs the caucuses. Advertisements worth $300 million reached voters ahead of the day.
Since the 1970s Iowa has established itself at the starting line of the national presidential race and every four years, its caucuses caused a frenzy in the world of politics and the media, but now no surprises are expected.
Trump has maintained his grip on the state’s politically active white evangelicals, a dominant factor in recent Republican cycles, noted an article from NPR, the public broadcasting service.
The story will most likely be just determining Haley’s confirmation in second place while DeSantis, who bet everything on Iowa and started 2023 as the closest thing Trump had to a real challenger, may start to rethink staying in the race.
However, Haley and DeSantis, each on his own, are claiming future victory. The also former South Carolina governor said she would «maybe» consider the Florida governor as her running mate, which he rejected.
In an interview with NBC News and the Des Moines Register to the question of whether he would consider joining Haley, he replied, «For what?» and called her «phony.»
Chris Christie, former governor of New Jersey, defected before Iowa Day, but vowed to do everything he could to keep Trump out of the White House because if he returned he would «burn America to the ground.»
For his part, Vivek Ramaswamy, the rookie businessman in politics, is in fourth place in the polls in Iowa and fifth in New Hampshire, where the second date of the Republican primaries will be held on January 23. Although there is nothing left for him to do, he is still there. As for Trump, despite his legal storms, 91 criminal charges and four trials, he will have in Iowa his first test in front of the voters after leaving the presidency in 2021 and there he has the chances to win.
The Democrats will not be in Iowa. They will begin their primary cycle in South Carolina on Feb. 3. The date in that state for Republicans is February 24.
