Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis arrives to speak at a Northside Conservatives Club Meeting at The District in Ankeny, Iowa, on Friday (Picture: AP)
A powerful blizzard disrupted presidential campaigns ahead of the first 2024 contest in Iowa, while the entire contiguous US was under extreme weather warnings.
Blizzards hit the upper Midwest on Friday morning, bringing heavy snowfall and winds up to 60 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
In Iowa, where the presidential race begins on Monday, temperatures were forecast to fall below zero degrees Fahrenheit, posing frostbite and hypothermia risks, said meteorologist Zach Taylor of the NWS’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.
Des Moines, the state capital, had an expected low of minus 18 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperatures on Monday, when Republican candidates hope their supporters will go out and vote at school gyms and churches, are forecast to be the coldest ever in the history of the crucial political event.
All 48 states in the contiguous US were under extreme weather alerts on Friday (Picture: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Weather Service)
Republican candidate and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis braved the snow and freezing temperatures to make a brief visit to his campaign’s headquarters in the state in Urbandale to meet his volunteers.
‘We can handle the snow even though we’re a Florida-based campaign,’ said DeSantis said. ‘We’ve got people knocking on doors in the snow, we’re out here doing events, we’re not stopping.’
The rest of DeSantis’ appearances on Friday were canceled.
Fred Shuster, 68, who despite the brutal conditions went to watch DeSantis’ campaign in Ankeny, said he was ‘worried about the weather’.
Caption: Republican presidential candidate former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks during a campaign event, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Photographer: Charlie Neibergall
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Copyright: Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved(Credits: AP)
‘I think it’s going to impact how many people attend the caucuses,’ said Shuster.
Former United Nations ambassador and South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who had a one-on-one debate with DeSantis earlier this week after ex-President Donald Trump declined to participate, canceled all three of her campaign events on Friday. She held phone-in events instead.
‘Stormy weather won’t stop us from ensuring Iowans hear Nikki’s vision for a strong and proud America,’ said Haley’s spokesperson Pat Garrett. ‘With only three days until the caucuses, we’re going to keep telling voters why they should pick Nikki.’
Trump, who is the clear frontrunner for the GOP nomination, canceled his planned rally in Pella.
Caption: NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JANUARY 11: Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks as he arrives for his civil fraud trial at New York Supreme Court on January 11, 2024 in New York City. Trump won’t make his own closing arguments after his lawyers objected to Judge Arthur Engoron’s insistence that Trump stay within the bounds of “relevant, material facts that are in evidence” of the case. Trump faces a permanent ban from running a business in New York state and $370 million in penalties in the case brought by state Attorney General Letitia James. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) ***BESTPIX***
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The former president had 53% support, Haley had 17.8% and DeSantis had 15.5% in a RealClearPolitics average of polls from January 5 to 11.
Americans across the country will be watching how the snowstorm affects turnout for the Iowa Caucus.
Storms impacting the west coast put 5.2million people under blizzard alerts. All 48 states in the contiguous US were subject to advisories, with 57million under winter storm warnings, 28million under wind chill warnings and 167million under high wind warnings.
The storm over the Southern Plains and headed toward the Midwest on Friday morning appeared on track to become a bomb cyclone.
All planes were grounded at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago and more than 5,000 flights were canceled or delayed on Friday.
‘This storm system is definitely dangerous,’ Taylor said.
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Republican candidates canceled campaign events amid a blizzard ahead of the first presidential contest, the Iowa Caucus, on Monday.