CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – The Hawkeye State is on the verge of breaking the deadlock in the 2024 Republican presidential cycle with its caucuses Monday.
The party’s four primary candidates have bounced between campaign events at the center of American politics ahead of the 2024 GOP primary — and The Post was there for the past week to get a feel for the mood among voters ahead of Caucus Day.
Here are some observations from the field — as well as some critical lessons learned.
Don’t worry, it’s not the police
It’s awesome to see random cars planted in the center lane and go to the side of the road when going around.
Rest assured, the vehicle is not part of a police speed trap. Unfortunately, they belonged to an unfortunate driver who had skidded off a slippery road in the middle of Iowa’s brutal winter weather.
While driving across Iowa, The Post observed hundreds of cars abandoned due to dangerous winter conditions.
Iowans will battle sub-zero temperatures on Monday for the caucuses. Getty Images
It underscored the frightening weather awaiting Iowans heading into caucus night and served as a stark reminder of the consequences of underestimating Mother Nature’s winter fury.
Several voters The Post spoke to expressed concern about braving the sub-zero weather Monday and were nervous about elderly relatives doing so.
The Post learned the hard way why muscle cars are the cheapest rental options.
Cruising between campaign events in a cherry red Dodge Charger looks alluring, but after a while, the good old bungee cord trick of freeing it from the snow and pushing it out of the parking lot becomes a Herculean task that loses its luster.
Ahead of the second blizzard, the rear-wheel-drive Charger was immediately returned to the four-wheel-drive pickup truck.
Some voters are still undecided
As of Saturday night, there were many voters The Post spoke to who were either undecided or soft on who they would ultimately return on Monday.
Granted, this is from a sample of voters exploring different campaigns in this late game.
Donald Trump is the reigning frontrunner. AP
But it could impact the race for second place given the portion of the caucus discussion when these voters will discuss the 2024 race with their neighbors.
Unlike the regular elections held in most state primaries, Iowa has caucuses, or meetings run by political parties in the community where each candidate group gives a speech to try to convince listeners to vote for their preferred candidate. The specific rules of these meetings vary from caucus to caucus.
After that, voters cast their ballots in secret, and the votes are tallied statewide, resulting in an overall winner.
Trump voters seem to be completely locked in
Every viable poll has former President Donald Trump well ahead of his Republican foe.
Having attended various events from all four top campaigns, one thing that stands out is that Trump events seem to feature almost exclusively Trump voters.
Nikki Haley seems to be on guard lately and has avoided publicly answering questions from voters at many recent events. Kyle Mazza/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
Meanwhile, campaign events for the other top three candidates — Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy — generally feature a mix of strong supporters and Iowans who simply sample the various candidates.
At the Trump event, there were many voters who didn’t seem to consider supporting the alternative, let alone attending an event for one of the other three.
On the other hand, the other three candidates seem to attract a lot of people who have thought about the four main options in addition to the supporters dug up.
Vibration check
Some voters justify the candidates they support by struggling with some of the policy positions and many of the characteristics they seek.
But when The Post looked at why certain voters supported one candidate over another, there were also plenty of lever pullers who seemed to listen carefully to their gut.
“There’s something about DeSantis that I don’t like about him,” Chris Harris, 56, of Iowa City told The Post at a Haley event last week, struggling to put his finger on it.
“He’s not a good fit for me right now,” Harris said, expressing “a little bit of uneasiness” with the struggling DeSantis that he doesn’t “care.”
Some of Vivek Ramaswamy’s supporters seem to have significant misgivings about Donald Trump. ZUMAPRESS.com
There were many similar responses from voters especially when pitting the Florida governor, DeSantis, and Haley, the former US ambassador to the UN, against each other.
As the candidates made their pitches to voters, many seemed unenthusiastic.
The four main contenders bring dramatically different personalities to the campaign trail, and that seems to loom large for some voters.
Vivek supports Trump
More than any other 2024 candidate, biotech entrepreneur Ramaswamy seems closest to Trump, both by being the quietest to knock him and by aggressively positioning himself as another “America First” candidate in the arena.
Given the overlap between the two, it seems likely that many anti-Trump voters will choose between DeSantis or Haley.
Yet a surprising number of voters Ramasway The Post spoke with in Iowa appeared to have significant doubts about Trump.
These concerns include various issues about the legal drama surrounding Trump, his competence and his viability in the general election.
Ron DeSantis has been eyeing a strong showing in Iowa, where experts say he desperately needs to stay in the race. AFP via Getty Images
Voters think differently than the Beltway
It doesn’t take a trip to Iowa to know that there is a significant gap between Republican voters and the Beltway elite. But the cracks still stand out.
Most voters The Post spoke with seemed to have a good grasp of big-picture news developments even if they weren’t as alive and politicized as DC’s top politicians and pundits.
And their perspective will sometimes deviate from conventional wisdom.
For example, there are some voters who are stuck between Haley and Trump, despite the very different personas of the two candidates.
Trump’s lean public schedule
Trump sent numerous surrogates to do campaign work in Iowa for him. His position includes Dr. Ben Carson, Arizona Senate challenger Kari Lake and Rep. Georgia Marjorie Taylor Green.
He held the fewest campaign events at his opponent’s — by far.
And his voters don’t seem to mind one bit.
As for her closest GOP rival, Haley, she has seemed more guarded lately and has avoided taking questions publicly from voters as her standing in the polls has risen.
Iowans will get a reprieve after Caucus Day when the storm of campaign ads dies down. Reuters
Extreme repetition
Perhaps the hallmark of any campaign cycle is hearing the same thing over and over again.
The candidates are storming Iowa and are just going to spew a lot of the same canned lines – some more than others.
Voters also ask many questions that candidates may have already answered hundreds of times.
Still, nearly all of the locals involved with The Post seem to take their responsibility to investigate candidates for the nation’s first pageant very seriously.
The Iowa caucuses are set to take place around 7 p.m. local time, or 8 p.m. in New York, on Monday.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
