people in iowa right now are looking at this as a level playing field. they re open to alternatives. they re open to listening to donald trump. these candidates, it would be helpful if donald trump did as well, go to these roast and rides. having been there, you have to go to the pizza ranch. you have to go to the machine shed. you to go to the iowa state fair. you have talk to these people. keep in mind nikki haley might not be getting all of this national attention like trump and desantis is, but what she s doing, and what these other candidates are doing and the smart thing, they re burning the shoe leather. they re going out talking to people, meeting and greeting, getting local media coverage, which is extremely important. getting the cover of des moines register, getting that local coverage. and winning people over one by one. and she s working it hard. desantis is going to be doing that certainly as well. tim scott. but it s too early to count any people out right now they re ou
among republican primary voter, it s just essential for their candidacies, as is money, kaitlan. yeah, that s the other number that matter, not just polling but fundraising as well. david chalian, thank you. yep. now i want to turn to cnn s abbey phillip and audie cornish, host of the assignment with audie cornish. hi. nice to see you on a sunday abby, what you expecting to see tonight? balancing act is the best phrase to describe what nikki haley is trying to do tonight. she is someone who served in the donald trump administration and really does want to argue that she belongs in the other lane, the non-trump lane. all of these candidates who are not trump are trying to vie for at least that second place, that second place position in this
haley during those few days repeated her call for, quote, a new generational leader. the question is, can she convince republican voters that she is that leader. joining us now from that auditorium is our own jeff zeleny with a list of what to watch for this evening. so, jeff, we are just under an hour out. what do you believe talking to your sources we should expect from nikki haley? well, dana, first and foremost challenge for of course the former governor of south carolina nikki haley is to distinguish herself from the rest of the field. and she of course was the second candidate to join this field right after donald trump earlier in year, with a call for generational change. and since then, she perhaps has fallen out of the headlines nationally a bit. but one thing she has been doing is putting the miles on, traveling across the stitt of i state of iowa, holding more events than any of her rival candidates have. she is kind of doing it the old-fashioned way through small
areas where you do have disagreement and show you are a next generation candidate and also has policy differences. and also on abortion, i want to head over to dana before we get to the town hall. thanks, caitlyn. we are just under 90 seconds left until we get to the town hall, and as we go into this event, what is the most critical thing that you think has to happen for nikki haley? i think we just heard on the other panel this idea that people don t quite understand where she stands and who she is as a candidate and who she is differentiated from trump, and that s going to be significant, what she says about abortion and russia and ukraine, and that sort of thing is what we are going to be list young for. and the key is from the top of the hour from jeff, iowa voters traditionally, historically, really do keep a very open mind. they like to be the king
president george w. bush, former white house communications director alyssa farah griffin, rob godfrey, who served in governor haley s administration as deputy chief of staff and chief spokesman, republican strategic alice stewart, david axelrod, and former south carolina state representative bakari sellers. we ve got the whole group here. obviously this roast and ride in iowa kicks off the entire campaigning for all of these republicans. they re all there. trump was the only one who was not there. we did see former vice president pence. he was the only one who actually got on a motorcycle and had a vest with his name on it. but alyssa, i wonder what you thought of it on stage, no mention of trump, even though he was the candidate who didn t feel like he needed to come this weekend. well, listen, i think candidates are showing up, and they re making their case. and dana made a very important point which the iowa caucuses are still eight months away. we re still so far out in the seas