©(Christian MONTERROSA / AFP)
The US Republican presidential nomination race begins on Monday, as voters gather for caucuses in freezing Iowa. This marks the initial and crucial test to determine whether Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis stand a chance against the scandal-plagued front-runner, Donald Trump, or if they will need to face the harsh political reality.
Voters kick off the US Republican presidential nomination race Monday with caucuses in freezing Iowa. This will be the first major test of whether Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis have any hope against scandal-plagued front-runner Donald Trump—or if they will have to accept the cold political reality.
For the first time since he lost his 2020 reelection bid, the former US president—who is being prosecuted in four criminal cases, ranging from taking top secret documents to trying to overthrow his election loss—will face voters.
Boasting a dominant lead in opinion polls, Trump is expected to win the Midwestern state's first-in-the-nation contest handily as he bids to be the Republican standard-bearer against President Joe Biden in November.
But observers have not ruled out a surprisingly strong showing by Haley or DeSantis.
Unlike in regular elections, there is no confidential voting booth. Instead, caucus participants demonstrate their choice by gathering at a designated spot in the room, along with other like-minded voters.
Trump plans to attend several of the caucuses over the evening, his campaign told AFP.
As the first-in-the-nation contest, Iowa has an outsized impact on the primary season, often setting momentum and media narratives ahead of the next states in the calendar.
Trump is expected to win easily, but the margin of his victory will be under immense scrutiny, with anything less than a crushing margin potentially denting the sense of inevitability that he has worked hard to create.
The latest NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll put Trump at 48 percent among likely caucus-goers.
Haley, a former UN ambassador and South Carolina governor, surged into second place but was still only at 20 percent, while Florida Governor Ron DeSantis scored 16 percent.
Biden, whose campaign announced Monday that it had raised more than $97 million in the fourth quarter of 2023 and now has a record-breaking war chest of $117 million. He faces no serious threat from his two Democratic challengers—self-help author Marianne Williamson and Minnesota congressman Dean Phillips.
Khalil Wakim, with AFP
Voters kick off the US Republican presidential nomination race Monday with caucuses in freezing Iowa. This will be the first major test of whether Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis have any hope against scandal-plagued front-runner Donald Trump—or if they will have to accept the cold political reality.
For the first time since he lost his 2020 reelection bid, the former US president—who is being prosecuted in four criminal cases, ranging from taking top secret documents to trying to overthrow his election loss—will face voters.
Boasting a dominant lead in opinion polls, Trump is expected to win the Midwestern state's first-in-the-nation contest handily as he bids to be the Republican standard-bearer against President Joe Biden in November.
But observers have not ruled out a surprisingly strong showing by Haley or DeSantis.
Unlike in regular elections, there is no confidential voting booth. Instead, caucus participants demonstrate their choice by gathering at a designated spot in the room, along with other like-minded voters.
Trump plans to attend several of the caucuses over the evening, his campaign told AFP.
As the first-in-the-nation contest, Iowa has an outsized impact on the primary season, often setting momentum and media narratives ahead of the next states in the calendar.
Trump is expected to win easily, but the margin of his victory will be under immense scrutiny, with anything less than a crushing margin potentially denting the sense of inevitability that he has worked hard to create.
The latest NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll put Trump at 48 percent among likely caucus-goers.
Haley, a former UN ambassador and South Carolina governor, surged into second place but was still only at 20 percent, while Florida Governor Ron DeSantis scored 16 percent.
Biden, whose campaign announced Monday that it had raised more than $97 million in the fourth quarter of 2023 and now has a record-breaking war chest of $117 million. He faces no serious threat from his two Democratic challengers—self-help author Marianne Williamson and Minnesota congressman Dean Phillips.
Khalil Wakim, with AFP
This Is Beirut
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