in new hampshire where we ll see you there. but i think what he s laid the foundation for here in iowa, everywhere go, we are striving to win. whether that is iowa and beyond. but we re also understanding that we are in this for delegate accrual. we are in this for the long haul. iowa is the first on the calendar and we ll compete hard here. but it does not end here. it starts and begins a journey of a very long pathway through march and beyond to fight for this nomination and we re excited about it. the governor and his team sharpened the attacks on nikki haley over the course of the last week or two on the trail and on air. is that what we should expect tonight at the debate? well, look, i think what you have seen nationally where governor desantis has had $44 million in false negative ads dropped against him, which by the way is more than against
up the score board. and meanwhile ron desantis and nikki haley will try to come from behind with respectable numbers. but what does a big win or strong second actually look like in iowa and can either candidate actually do it? we asked the man who would know, harry enten digging into that data and the historical races. he is here with some answers. expectations for trump in iowa are sky high. if he doesn t hit them, i m sure he will just change the expectations. but any doubt that he can meet where they currently sit? these are sky high expectations. look at these polls from december. 36 point lead. 34 point lead. 32 point lead. my goodness gracious, all three high quality pollsters. and they give you an understanding going back histo historically, these are the biggest below outs. 13 points, 11 points, the points. and trump leading by over 30 points. so can he meet the expectations? we ll have to wait and see. but the fact is no republican has ever come anywhere close.
trump. look, our view all along has been the pathway to the nomination is to go through donald trump. nikki haley s belief is it has always been to go around him. there hasn t been a candidate whether from the debate stage in the past debates so-to-going arou around the state that hasn t made a sharp contrast with donald trump. governor desantis is closing he has a closing pitch that is simple. he believes donald trump is running for the nomination on his issues. he believes that nikki haley is running for this nomination on her donors issues. and ron desantis is running on the people s issues. and is that a pretty sharp con contrast. if you go across the state where we re the campaign that has outworked anybody in this race, this candidate has been in not just every one of the 99 counties but many of them multiple times over, he s taken tough questions, he has laid a sharp contrast with both nikki
new hampshire, south carolina. i think that there will be some real questions about ron desantis and his campaign going forward. expectations are important even if they seem a little morphus. and new this morning the wall street journal editorial board posting if mr. trump is such a strong candidate, why is he afraid of ms. haley? joining us from iowa, shelby talcott. they write the former president is clearly afraid that real alternative is gaining on him. how does it feel on the ground there? it is interesting on the ground depending on which event that you go to, you will hear from iowa voters who are interested in nikki haley, who are interested in ron desantis and of course who are interested in donald trump. so from a voting perspective, when i talk to voters, i ve heard all three. i ve heard a lot of interest
bar that he needs to exceed. nikki haley s team has been much more vague here in iowa and even in new hampshire, their goal is to just do really well. chris sununu said she could have a surprise second place finish here, but she has not put the pressure that others have put on herself. i think her goal is to do really well in iowa, which means either very tight third place or ideally a second place finish. if she has second place finish, they believe that she will propel her into new hampshire where she s already doing much better than anyone else depends donald trump. shelby talcott, thank you very much. up next, ashley judd opens up about life and loss after the death of her mom. what she said to her mother in her final moments. . my mother s death was traumatic and unexpected because it was death by susuicide. and i found heher.