point lead, and nikki haley and ron desantis in a battle for second place. also, subzero temperatures could make it the coldest caucus day in iowa on record. plus, our very own steve kornacki at the big board tracking the story lines to watch, and how the result tonight could impact next week s new hampshire primary. meanwhile, new accusations, texas officials blocked border agents from saving a migrant woman is and two children from drowning at the southern border. the white house calling it imhumane. another attack on american forces in the red sea, we have details on how the u.s. responded. the u.s. responded. we begin this hour with the very first contest of the 2024 race for the white house. iowa caucus goers are braving some of the bitterest temperatures, plunging a low as minus 18 overnight. and a new media com poll giving us a closer look at the enthusiasm gap going into tonight s caucuses. nearly nine in ten trump supporters say they are very enthusiastic about
Its not like you just show up and you vote for the candidate you want and then head home if you have to be there, but its so the process is lengthy, and its really fascinating. Youre at a High School that will serve as a Caucus Site for the entire county. How exactly will tonights caucuses work there . Yeah, it is incredible, jose. This is very different from the democratic Caucus Process where everyone gathers in one room and just on what steve was talking about, this is one of those counties Wappalo County, and were going to see what Margin Trump wins compared to last year. This is ottumwa High School. Its an incredible High School. Everyone is going to gather from Wappalo County in this auditorium and listen to pitches from the campaigns before they actually go out and caucus. Where they caucus is not actually in this room. Come with me, hear at ottumwa High School, and you can see some of the teachers and Faculty And Staff are still here getting ready, it has been around since
1923. It is a beautiful building. Come down these stairs. The caucus itself doesnt take place in that auditorium. It takes place down in the classrooms. They just celebrated their 100 year anniversary, shoutout to the bulldogs when they come down these stairs, theyre going to be looking for their precinct, jose, and the precincts are in individual different classrooms. So you might be from all corners of wappalo county, but everybodys going to meet here today, it might be as many as A Thousand people. In 2016 they had something like 1,900 people show up here for the super caucus. For instance, youre going to go in a classroom 120, which is a Spanish Classroom on a normal day, but on this night, it will be between the hours of 7 00 and around 9 00, a place where youre going to bring your ballot, if you are in this precinct, youre going to put it in the ballot box, and theyre going to tabulate the votes in the precinct. Come with me, i was mentioning that this is a Trump County in 2016.