Iowa entrance polls show MAGA fans turned out for caucus: Live updates
Donald Trump holds commanding lead over challengers Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy
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The 2024 Republican candidates are eagerly awaiting the results of the Iowa caucuses on Monday – though if polling tells us anything, it’s that Donald Trump has a predictable commanding lead over the other candidates.
In a survey, conducted by The Des Moines Register, NBC News and Medicom, 48 per cent of potential voters said the former president was their first choice of Republican presidential candidates.
Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley was behind Mr Trump with 20 per cent support followed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis with 16 per cent.
Vivek Ramaswamy had just 8 per cent while only 5 per cent of potential voters said they were still unsure.
Of the survey respondents more than half said they had their minds made up regarding who they would cast their vote for.
But for the 32 per cent who could still be persuaded to support a candidate, the presidential candidates are fighting hard to convince them to join their teams.
Trump extends winning streak with weekend primary victories in Idaho, Michigan and Missouri
For all that, Trump moved closer to the Republican nomination on Saturday with victories in the Idaho, Michigan and Missouri caucuses that left Haley even further in his rear-view mirror.
In Michigan, the former president took all 39 delegates that were available on Saturday. In a separate Michigan primary earlier this week, Trump won 12 of the other 16 delegates up for grabs.
Saturday’s contests were the last before Super Tuesday where Haley is desperate to make her case for hanging on in the primaries and providing an alternative to voters.
John Bowden and Gustaf Kilander have this round-up.
Trump extends winning streak in Idaho and Michigan after early Missouri win
‘Vermont, Utah, Virginia. I think there are states that, if you look at demographically, she has a chance to win,’ Haley Super PAC source says ahead of Super Tuesday
Bad loser Trumps rages at Haley and DC ‘swamp’ after first primary loss
Haley’s rival has not taken last night’s result at all well, claiming to have “purposely stayed away from the DC Vote because it is the ‘Swamp,’ with very few delegates, and no upside”.
Sure Don. Sure.
Haley wins DC primary in crucial boost ahead of Super Tuesday
Nikki Haley secured her first victory of the 2024 Republican primary season on Sunday in DC, ending her losing streak and providing her campaign with the sliver of hope it desperately needed.
Haley’s defeat of front-runner Donald Trump marks the first time another GOP candidate has beaten the former president in any contest since 2016 and is the first sign that this year’s primary season will amount to anything more than a further demonstration of his dominance over conservatives.
The race was called around 9pm last night, when Haley was leading with 62.9 per cent of the vote.
Her campaign now looks ahead to Super Tuesday and the possibility of peeling off a few states from what is likely to prove yet another huge delegate haul for Mr Trump.
John Bowden reports.
Nikki Haley wins her first Republican primary victory in Washington DC
Win could provide Haley much-needed jolt of energy two days ahead of Super Tuesday
VIDEO: Closing arguments heard in bid to remove Fani Willis from Trump case
Trump campaign appears to have learned from its previous mistakes
All three of the contests on Saturday were caucuses, which are more time-consuming and require more voter engagement, possibly benefitting Mr Trump as he has many fervent followers.
Caucuses usually have lower turnout than primaries since voters have to arrive at a specific time and stick around for a while to take part in the more labour-intensive process compared to pulling a lever in a primary.
Prominent Iowa pollster Ann Selzer spoke to The Independent about the caucus process late last year ahead of the first-in-the-nation contest. While caucuses vary from state to state, it’s usually the case that voters listen to a speech and then declare their support.
“Caucuses are designed for things to happen in the room on caucus night — there’s a moment in time where a representative from each campaign stands up and makes their pitch — they get a couple of minutes to do it,” she said, noting the importance of “person-to-person politicking at the last possible moment”.
“If you don’t know how to get the votes, [how to] get your name written on a piece of paper, you can lose that way,” she added at the time.
But the Trump campaign appears to have learned from its previous experiences, handily winning all the contests so far, caucuses and primaries alike.
Why Missouri currently doesn't allow pregnant women to be legally divorced
A Missouri lawmaker has introduced legislation to clarify that the state’s judges can grant divorces even when one spouse is pregnant.
The notion that they can’t already has sparked anger from people who see it as an antiquated policy that controls women unfairly, possibly trapping them in abusive marriages.
But divorce lawyers say the practice – which goes beyond Missouri – is not meant to be punitive for pregnant women and has some important practical benefits.
Haley says she no longer feels bound by the GOP pledge requiring her to support the eventual nominee
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said Sunday she no longer feels bound by a pledge that required all GOP contenders to support the party’s eventual nominee in order to participate in the primary debates.
The Republican National Committee had made the pledge a prerequisite for all candidates, and nearly every major contender signed, except for Donald Trump, the current front-runner, who skipped the debates.
When Haley, Trump’s lone remaining major challenger for the nomination, was asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” whether she was compelled to honor that commitment, she said, “No. I think I’ll make what decision I want to make.”
She said the “the RNC is now not the same RNC” as it was at the time of the debates. She also maintained that she has always said she had “serious concerns” about Trump, for whom she served as U.N. ambassador.
The RNC is in the midst of major changes, with the chair, Ronna McDaniel, set to leave the job on Friday. She was Trump’s hand-picked choice to lead the RNC shortly after the 2016 election, but Trump now is poised to install loyalists atop the organization. He has announced his preference for North Carolina GOP Chair Michael Whatley, a little-known veteran operative, to replace McDaniel. Trump also has picked his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, to serve as committee co-chair.
Haley dismissed questions about whether she would drop out and eventually endorse Trump.
“Right now, my focus is, ‘How do we touch as many voters? How do we win?’” she said. “I want the American people to see that you don’t have to live this way. There is a path forward. And we can do it with someone who can put in eight years, that can constantly focus on results and not the negativity and the baggage that we have right now.”
Trump on Saturday continued his march toward the nomination, winning caucuses in Idaho and Missouri and sweeping the delegate haul at a party convention in Michigan.
Trump’s count is now 244, compared with 24 for Haley. A candidate needs to secure 1,215 delegates to clinch the nomination.
The next event on the Republican calendar was Sunday in the District of Columbia. Two days later is Super Tuesday, when 16 states will hold primaries on what will be the largest day of voting of the year outside of the November election. Trump is on track to lock up the nomination days later.
“I’ve always said this needs to be competitive. As long as we are competitive, as long as we are showing that there is a place for us, I’m going to continue to fight,” Haley said.
VIDEO: Trump's classified documents trial pushed
Super Tuesday: When is it, which states are participating and how many delegates are at stake?
Super Tuesday, the biggest day of the US presidential primary season, arrives early next month and promises to have a decisive if perhaps somewhat anticlimactic impact on the respective Republican and Democratic races.
As it stands, Donald Trump looks all but certain to be the GOP’s presidential candidate once again in 2024, having already chalked up big wins in the Iowa and US Virgin Islands caucuses and the New Hampshire and Nevada primaries.
All but one of his challengers have fallen away, leaving only the well-funded but under-performing ex-UN ambassador Nikki Haley still swinging.
But even she may not make it to Super Tuesday (although she has promised she will), as the next Republican primary takes place in her home state of South Carolina and current polling indicates the Palmetto State’s former governor could be in for another trouncing on her home turf, a further humiliation after she scored fewer votes than the “none of these candidates” box on Nevada ballot papers.
“Is there any way we can call the election for next Tuesday?” a cocky Mr Trump gloated on stage in Las Vegas after that result.
“That’s all I want. I want to call the election for next Tuesday.”
However, if Ms Haley can somehow conjure a surprise victory in either South Carolina on 24 February or Michigan on 27 February, it will be game on for Super Tuesday and we could find ourselves with a very interesting evening indeed.
The Democratic contest is looking equally one-sided, with President Joe Biden seemingly nailed-on to be his party’s candidate again as he seeks a second term in the White House, despite concerns about his advanced age and consistently poor polling.
Following the withdrawal of Marianne Williamson, Minnesota congressman Dean Phillips remains the president’s last remaining rival and is surely too low-profile to make an impact, President Biden having comfortably won the New Hampshire primary without even appearing on Granite State ballots thanks to a grassroots write-in campaign.
Kentucky House backs giving lawmakers authority over statues in Capitol Rotunda
Kentucky lawmakers would claim authority over what statues are installed or removed from the state Capitol’s Rotunda under a bill passed Friday by the GOP-led House, a move the bill sponsor said has nothing to do with the removal of a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis four years ago.
Republican state Rep. David Hale said his legislation is forward looking amid preparations to renovate Kentucky’s statehouse and “has no reflection on what has been done in the past.”
The debate turned testy when Democratic Rep. Josie Raymond tried asking Hale if the bill could be used to restore the statue of a “racist, slaver and secessionist like Jefferson Davis” or someone as “equally reprehensible.” Her question was ruled out of order and the House vote followed immediately.
The bill passed 77-17 to advance to the Senate, where Republicans also have an overwhelming majority.
In an interview afterward, Hale said his legislation would not allow lawmakers to act on their own to install or remove a statue or other permanent Rotunda display. Instead, they would respond to recommendations from the state Historic Properties Advisory Commission, he said.
Hale also said the proposal was not a response to the Davis statue’s removal.
“I have no intention of making any kind of a request to bring anything back that’s gone,” he said.
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