We are barreling toward the Iowa caucuses which will be the first of the major primary race votes to decide which member of the Republican Party who still remains in the race will be the nominee to take on President Joe Biden in November. The latest polls are currently showing former President Donald Trump still holding a massive lead over the handful of competitors who are still in the running for the position, with over 50 percent support with only five days to go before voting starts, says a report from Real Clear Politics.
Check out the latest details from the Daily Wire:
As of Wednesday afternoon, Trump leads the GOP field in Iowa with 52.2% as former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley (16.6%) and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (16.4%) fight for second place in the polls, per the RCP average. Tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy (7%), former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (3.4%), and former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson (0.6%) round out the GOP candidates heading into the Iowa caucuses, which take place on Monday, January 15.
The most recent poll, conducted between January 6 and January 8, comes from the Trafalgar Group, which puts Trump at 52% and Haley and DeSantis both at 18%. All other GOP candidates were under 6%, according to Trafalgar. A Morning Consult poll conducted between January 1 and January 7 has Trump at 58%, Haley in second at 15%, and DeSantis in third at 14%. Ramaswamy polled much better in the Morning Consult survey, hitting 10%, while Christie remained at 3%.
Haley and DeSantis will take the stage in Des Moines on Wednesday evening to face off in a CNN debate. Meanwhile, Trump, who qualified for the debate, will instead sit down with Fox News hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum for a town hall, which will also take place in Des Moines.
It truly mystifies me why we’re having yet another debate, especially this close to go time. Haven’t we heard the candidates’ positions on pretty much every issue known to man several times over? Apparently this latest debate, the smallest one out of them all, will be focused on “women’s issues.”
Guess that means abortion will be in the mix. It should be, it’s a critical issue. In fact, it could be one of the most important of our time, though you’d never guess that because the majority of the people in our nation are far more worried about their bank accounts than protecting innocent children from being slaughtered.
The fifth Republican presidential debate of the 2024 season will also be the fifth that Trump, the leading candidate in the field, will skip. The former president has cited his large polling lead over the rest of the Republican field as why he does not attend the debates, sparking the ire of his GOP competitors.
“With only three candidates qualifying for the CNN debate, it’s time for Donald Trump to show up. As the debate stage continues to shrink, it’s getting harder for Donald Trump to hide,” Haley stated just a week ago.
DeSantis also decided to take a few shots at the former president over his absence from the GOP debates, saying last month, “He’s not been willing to come here and answer questions.”
“He parachutes in for 30, 45-minute, hour speech and then just leaves, rather than listening to Iowans answering questions and doing, I think, what it takes to win,” the Florida governor continued.
Honestly, it’s been a smart move for Trump to avoid the debates. For starters, he doesn’t really need to debate. He’s never, really, truly stopped campaigning since 2020. He’s remained in the public spotlight and weighed in on important issues and stories of the day as they’ve happened. Everyone knows where the man stands and what to expect from his platform. We had a taste of it for four years.
Trump would never be given a fair shake on the debate stage. The vast majority of the media outlets that put on debates have been left-leaning. It would have been a massive trap designed to get him to say something stupid they could use against him. He knows this, and thus, did not take the bait.
His popularity is still extremely high with a very, very loyal following.
I think the others are afraid of Trump winning — and he clearly has a good chance of that — so I believe the other candidates were hoping he’d debate so they could hammer him and maybe shave off some of the massive support he has.
Too late.
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