Everything you need to know about the Iowa caucuses

• Voters will decide the 2024 Republican presidential nominee on Monday.
• Candidates on the ballot in Iowa include former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and businessman Texas Ryan Binkley as 2024 presidential candidate.
• “We know we can trust our people because these are the people we've been in constant contact with and built strong relationships with,” Andrew Romeo, a spokesman for the DeSantis campaign, told reporters after Wednesday's presidential debate .

Iowans will gather in sub-zero temperatures on Monday to decide their 2024 Republican presidential nominee in a little-known event practiced in only a handful of US states

The Hawkeye State has held a caucus every four years since the decade of the 1970s and is one of 9 states that still implements the practice, seconds on WQUAD8, a local ACB News affiliate. Eligible voters who are registered with the party and over the age of 18 will gather at 7 p.m. central time on January 15 at schools, churches and event centers across the state after weeks of aggressive campaigning by Republican candidates .

Candidates on the ballot in Iowa include former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and businessman Texas Ryan Binkley as 2024 presidential candidate.

A caucus differs from a primary in that voters gather for a shorter, fixed period in 1,657 precincts and listen to caucus captains, who make speeches on behalf of a particular candidate, seconds on NPR. Participants then cast a secret ballot and appoint a delegate per precinct, who will then vote on whether to confirm the candidate during the county convention, which is usually scheduled in the summer. seconds in the Des Moines Register.

Previous Iowa caucus winners include President Barack Obama in 2008, Rick Santorum in 2012 and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas in 2016, according to NPR. President Joe Biden is the Democratic incumbent this election cycle, and Democratic voters will hold their caucus through mail-in ballots from January 12 to February 19. seconds in the New York Times.

Trump currently leads the pack both nationally with an average of 61% and in Iowa with an average of 53%, seconds at RealClearPolitics. DeSantis and Haley have been battling back and forth for second place, hovering just under 20% each in Iowa.

Vivek Ramaswamy is currently averaging 6% in Iowa, according to RealClearPolitics, and former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Christie polled an average of 3.5% earlier. advertiser Wednesday that he was leaving the race. Asa Hutchinson has consistently polled below 1% during his campaign.

Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds endorsed DeSantis in November, saying he did not believe Trump could win a general election, but expressed confidence in DeSantis' ability to beat Biden.

“I think Ron can and that's a big reason I got behind him,” Reynolds said.

Both of us DeSantis i Ramaswamy have completed the “Full Grassley” of Iowa's 99 counties named after Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who makes the trip each year. Ramaswamy wants to complete a second tour and has several town halls scheduled through Monday.

The weather in Iowa is supposed to be the coldest caucus day in state history with temperatures below freezing. seconds on KCCI, a local media outlet. Campaigners, however, remained optimistic after the presidential debate in Des Moines, Iowa, on Wednesday that the weather would not prevent Iowans from participating in the caucuses.

Andrew Romeo, a spokesman for the DeSantis campaign, told reporters that “we can trust our people.”

“Well, we have been [saying] when you are in constant contact with voters, when your candidate has it [visited] 99 counties and makes a personal connection with them stronger than anyone else, that's going to matter when the weather is cold like this,” Romeo said. “And when it's hard to get people to come out and people don't want to come out, we know we can trust our people because they are people with whom we have been in constant contact and with whom we have built strong relationships.”

Preya Samsundar, spokeswoman for the SFA Fund, a pro-Haley Super PAC, also told reporters that “to quote Frozen, 'the cold never bothered us anyway.'

“People here in Iowa, this is just winter for us,” Samsundar said. “We'll just go out and do things as long as the roads are great. People will go out and do their thing. They know how important the Iowa caucuses are. Iowans know how important their voice is in this process.”

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