Political | Process

The Iowa caucuses will kick off the 2024 presidential Republican primary process on Jan 15th, 2024.

Former President Donald Trump still dominates the race. He’s ahead by 27 percentage points — a lead that has expanded to 51.3%.

Support for Nikki Haley has swelled in Iowa: The former United Nations ambassador has pulled even with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in what has become a heated battle for second place in the first-in-the-nation caucus state. Haley trails slightly against DeSantis at 15.8%.

And both candidates have recently announced they would increase their Iowa presence as the race to Caucus Day on Jan. 15. Gov DeSantis maintains a slight lead against Haley at 17.8%.

Vivek Ramaswamy, entrepreneur and political commentator currently maintains a 7% average.

Former New Jersey governor, Chris Christie maintains a 3.6% average.

While polls show former President Donald Trump has a strong hold on the state, several other GOP candidates are crisscrossing Iowa to pitch their plan as an alternative to Trump.

Tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has done the most events in Iowa so far; Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley are leading in the polls among candidates who aren’t Trump. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has skipped the state altogether — instead focusing on New Hampshire.

Iowa’s caucuses, along with New Hampshire’s primary, have historically received outsized attention from the public and from the news media because they offer the first look at who voters want to run in the next presidential election. Since 1972, Iowa’s caucuses have been a testing ground for presidential candidates and an opportunity for leading candidates to inject a surge of momentum into their campaigns.

GOP caucuses are different from regular elections and even differ from Iowa’s Democratic causes.

The caucuses, which start at 7 p.m. CT on Jan. 15, require voters to caucus at the location assigned to the precinct in which they live, divvying Iowans up among the more than 1,600 precincts across the state’s 99 counties.