- Iowa Republicans will gather at the state’s caucuses on Monday to choose a candidate
- According to the latest poll, Trump is losing by three points, but he is still the clear favorite
- Behind him
Donald Trump is on course for a landslide victory in the Iowa caucuses, according to the latest poll before decision day, which predicts he will take 48 percent of the vote.
However, NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa shows that it is Nikki Haley who continues her rise, narrowing Trump’s lead and putting her in a clear second place with 20 percent.
That leaves Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in third place with 16 percent.
The state is the first in the country to choose its preferred candidate and can make or break campaigns.
On Saturday night, Ann Selzer, the state’s best-known and most accurate pollster, released her long-awaited final poll before caucus day.
Donald Trump has crushed his opponents in the Iowa polls. But things will become real Monday night at 7 p.m. when Republicans meet to elect their preferred candidate. The latest poll before the caucus gives him 48 percent support, three points lower than the same poll in December
Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis are locked in a battle for second place in Iowa
Her December poll had Trump at 51 percent, DeSantis at 19 percent and Haley at 16 percent.
It means the former president has slipped a bit, while it’s Haley, former governor of South Carolina, who has the momentum as the candidates get down to the business of the race.
Rabble-rousing tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy is in fourth place with eight percent.
Trump lost Iowa in 2016 to Ted Cruz, who was better positioned to capture the state’s large evangelical vote.
This time, the Trump campaign has left nothing to chance, building a big race to secure the vote on Monday and hitting its rivals hard.
However, a series of polls that put him 30 points ahead of his nearest rivals mean that anything short of a record-breaking victory will be seen as a bad result and encourage DeSantis and Haley to continue.
DeSantis, for his part, has gambled much of his campaign resources on Iowa. He knows that New Hampshire, the next state to make a decision, is less fertile ground for his conservative, anti-woke message.
Haley, on the other hand, is doing well in the Granite State and can afford a modest scholarship in Iowa.
They returned to campaign events on Saturday, battling frigid weather to reach Republicans who have 48 hours to make a decision.
Haley appeared in the college town of Iowa City, one of the state’s most Democratic areas. It is in line with her efforts to win over independents and moderates.
Republican presidential candidate and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy is at eight percent
Both challengers ended the day with events in the Mississippi city of Davenport, one of the more Republican cities in the eastern part of the state.
In contrast, Trump abandoned plans for two rallies and instead called for “tele-meetings.”
DeSantis ridiculed his strategy.
“We’re in, we’re showing up. Donald Trump called. He’ll be at Mar-a-Lago. It’s probably 75 degrees there,” he told supporters in Council Bluffs, where the outside temperature was -5F.
The bitter weather could put a new twist on a notoriously difficult system to predict.
Campaigns will have to work even harder to ensure they get their supporters to Monday’s caucuses.