The head of the Iowa Republican Party said Saturday that only a “massive national disaster” would prompt a rescheduling of Monday’s Iowa caucuses as temperatures are expected to dip to lows in the negative teens that evening.
Jeff Kauffman, the chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa, told DailyMail.com that rescheduling the caucuses would be “virtually impossible” because the date has been approved by the Republican National Committee and 8,000 volunteers are ready to go on the ground .
He predicted that the show would go on – and without any major problems.
“I still think we’ll have a robust turnout. We may go from a record number of over 186,000 to a large turnout,” Kauffman said. “But anecdotally, listening to people, I really think we’re still going to have a very robust turnout. I think people will band together. I know there is a lot of passion. And we’re used to it,” he said of the frigid weather.
Four years ago, it wasn’t the weather that hampered the Democrats’ Iowa caucuses, it was a hiccup with an app they used to use vote totals, locking up the final results for hours.
Jeff Kauffman, the chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa, told DailyMail.com that unless there is a “massive national disaster,” the Iowa caucuses will take place Monday night, despite a forecast that could lead to a temperature drop into the negative teenage years.
Kauffman explained why there would be no repeat on the Republican side.
‘The Democrats, they got that app at the last minute. They didn’t even have a chance to train for it. It was an app that the DNC gave them,” Kauffman recalled. ‘We have developed our own app.’
He said the app Iowa Republicans use to report results has been used for the past two election cycles.
“It’s clear skies for the Republican Party because we’ve been there and done that, and we’re not taking anything for granted,” he added.
Kauffman also said the army of volunteers is robustly trained.
“We’ve literally had over 200 in-person trainings in all 99 counties, not to mention hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of phone calls and in-person counseling and things like that,” he said.
He also said Republicans have backups if those charged with running the district cannot make it Monday night.
The 2024 Republican hopefuls have had to deal with two snowstorms, freezing temperatures and high winds in the past week. GOP hopeful Nikki Haley is captured Saturday at a campaign event in Iowa City
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, his son Mason and his wife Casey walk into the Urbandale, Iowa headquarters of his 2024 presidential campaign on Friday. The weather has forced the candidates to cancel a number of campaign appearances ahead of the Iowa caucuses have canceled Monday
And even if that fails, there is another plan on the table.
“We have specific instructions on how to run that caucus, so technically we can just say that the caucuses are in this specific place, without even training them, and I’m confident that the system would work.” , he said.
“So we’re talking about triple, quadruple and even fivefold double-checking that this is all done correctly,” Kauffman added.
Kauffman was in Des Moines on Saturday, along with Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel, at the Iowa GOP headquarters near the Capitol in snowy downtown Des Moines.
Aside from the weather issues, he was asked by a reporter what would happen if any of the candidates disputed the caucus result.
He argued that there was too much ‘transparency’ for that.
‘Everything that comes in can be verified and checked by anyone in the world. So I just don’t see a scenario where there would be legitimate complaints about our process,” Kauffman said.
“As far as what the candidates are doing and what the candidates are saying: Lord, if I could determine that I would run for president of the United States,” he said. “I honestly don’t see a scenario where you can question our process and do that legitimately.”