{"id":591560,"date":"2023-09-16T19:30:48","date_gmt":"2023-09-16T16:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/gop-presidential-battle-in-the-first-caucus-state-heats-up\/"},"modified":"2023-09-16T19:30:48","modified_gmt":"2023-09-16T16:30:48","slug":"gop-presidential-battle-in-the-first-caucus-state-heats-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/gop-presidential-battle-in-the-first-caucus-state-heats-up\/","title":{"rendered":"#GOP presidential battle in the first caucus state heats up"},"content":{"rendered":"
With just four months to go until the Iowa caucuses, nearly the entire field of Republican White House contenders<\/a> is back this weekend in the state that leads off the GOP presidential nominating calendar.<\/p>\n

The presidential candidates are speaking Saturday evening at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual fall banquet, as they each make their case to a large and influential crowd of social<\/a> conservative leaders, activists, and Evangelical voters, who play an outsized role in Hawkeye State Republican politics.<\/p>\n

“Labor Day is over. Kids are back in school and people are starting to really tune in,” longtime Iowa based Republican strategist and communicator Jimmy Centers said.<\/p>\n

Pointing to last month’s Iowa State Fair<\/a>, where all but one contender in the large field of Republican presidential candidates courted voters, Centers noted that “the state fair was when people started to wake up and realized that the caucus was coming.<\/p>\n

HOW THIS ONE-TIME BATTLEGROUND STATE IN THE HEARTLAND TURNED BRIGHT RED<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Veteran Iowa Republican operative and consultant Nicole Schlinger highlighted that “once Labor Day has passed, school has started and the weather starts to turn, that\u2019s when peoples\u2019 minds start turning to elections and people get more serious about vetting the candidates in terms of making a decision.”<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

With the clock quickly ticking towards the start of the 2024 Republican primary and caucus calendar, former President Donald Trump<\/a> remains the commanding front-runner for his party’s nomination, as he makes his third straight White House run.<\/p>\n

TRUMP – DESANTIS SHOWDOWN AT THE IOWA STATE FAIR <\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

And his historic four criminal indictments \u2014 including two for allegedly trying to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Biden \u2014 app<\/a>ear to have only strengthened his support among likely Republican primary voters.<\/p>\n

The latest Fox News<\/a> national survey in the GOP nomination race, conducted Sept. 9-12 and released on Thursday, pointed to Trump expanding his already enormous lead over the rest of the field.<\/p>\n

But while still towering over his rivals, Trump’s lead in the latest surveys in Iowa, as well as New Hampshire and South Carolina, two other crucial early voting states in the Republican nominating calendar, is not as overwhelming.<\/p>\n

IT’S TRUMP’S RACE TO LOSE FOUR AND A HALF MONTHS AHEAD OF THE FIRST VOTES IN THE GOP NOMINATION BATTLE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

“It\u2019s closer in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina that it is nationally, but it\u2019s not close,” said David Kochel, a longtime Republican consultant and veteran of numerous GOP presidential campaigns in Iowa and nationally.<\/p>\n

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