Cnns Eva Mckend is in iowa for us. What can we expect from the other candidates . Reporter at this minute theyre still crisscrossing the state trying to appeal to iowans. They lost time last week during the snow storms. Nikki haley at the Drake Diner this morning is telling iowans they have the opportunity to set the tone for the country. Meanwhile, Governor Desantis is expressing confidence in the Ground Game that his team has built out here. Desantis, of course, going all in on iowa. Former president donald trump, he is leaning on his supporters not be complacent, arguing they should not tag it for granted that hes way out ahead of these polls. Haley and desantis trying to emerge as the trump alternative
Donald trump has universal name recognition. He is to republican primary voters a kind of incumbent. If he doesnt win by enormous margins, that does suggest theres a real vulnerability and the path for an alternative. Thats what Nikki Haley is banking on. Do respectably in those areas where she invested time and effort and see where she goes. Trump, he predicted he would win with what he called, quote, a historic landslide. What happens if he doesnt . Anything he gets is going to be historic because the next closest one is Bob Dole in 1988 who won by 13 percentage points. Its going to be historic. Hes going to break records no matter what. However, if he doesnt win with the kind of, i think, crushing victory hes been talking about and talking very loudly about,
Former president himself. Trying to warn him, look, we know that theres a massive expected turnout. That could change and we need to be careful as what we see as a lead as we head into tonight. Youve been talking to several members of the trump Inner Circle around the country. What is their sense . Give us more detail. Reporter right, well, i think one of the big questions is about turnout. I think one of the key parts of their Ground Game Strategy in iowa has been to find and create firsttime caucus goers, not just relying on normal republican voters, but creating firsttime caucus goers. One of the thing is the weather. Theyre a bit worried about how many people will show up, but also because donald trump is leading so heavily in the polls. They dont want people to get complacent. Elena, thank you very much
John berman at the magic wall. How predictive have the Iowa Caucuses been . Not very. Not very at all for republicans. Looking back to 2016, you can see Ted Cruz won the Iowa Caucuses. Donald trump won new Hampshire Touchdown the nomination. In 2012 Rick Santorum won the Iowa Caucuses. Mitt romney won the nomination. John mccain won the republican nomination in 2008. You have to go back to 2000 to find where the person who won the caucuses was the nominee. That was george w. Bush who won 41 . He lost New Hampshire to john mccain. Iowa not a great predictor of whats to come
Me in caucus, i promise you our best days are yet to come. Reporter so far donald trump has shown his support is resilient here no matter basically no matter what. Joining me now is someone who knows a lot about all this, kate henderson, the News Director of radio iowa. Great to have you here. Hello. Give me a sense, the projections on turnout, before the forecast and the Weather Set in, it was going to exceed some were thinking the record set in 2016. Now its all over the map. Whats your sense of how this cycle feels compared to the past . Its completely different because you essentially have an incumbent running and you have a whole pack of people, some of whom are no longer with us on the Campaign Trail who dropped