GOP candidates try to secure undecided Iowans
INDIANOLA, Iowa — Marc Smiarowski hunched over to fight off the minus 18-degree chill on Sunday, waiting for the doors to open for Donald Trump’s midday rally at a small college outside Des Moines.
But as the weak winter sun hung low in the sky, a sense of bitterness burned in Smiarowski.
“I’m here in part out of spite,” said the 44-year-old public utility worker who drove 40 miles from Huneston to see the former president. “I can’t abandon him. After what they did to him in the last election, and the political persecution he faces, I feel like I owe him this. He’s our only option.”
His friend Kailie Johnson, a 26year-old dental hygienist from the same small town, was wrapped in a Las Vegas Raiders blanket. “No one else could handle what he’s facing,” Johnson said.
More than 30 minutes before the doors opened at Simpson College, Smiarowski and Johnson stood in line with more than 100 others layered in Carhartt coveralls with hats and hoods pulled down tight. It was a test run for Iowa’s caucuses Monday night — and of the devotion Trump said last week would make his supporters “walk on glass” for him.
Trump is counting on people like Smiarowski, Johnson and tens of thousands of supporters across frigid Iowa to deliver him a decisive victory and cement his status as the undisputed frontrunner when Iowa Republicans make the first official choices of the 2024 election.
The major candidates spent Sunday in the state trying to shore up support and find Iowans who remain persuadable before the caucuses. Still, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley canceled an appearance in eastern Iowa because of road conditions.
Both Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has bet big on Iowa, exuded confidence in national television interviews as they compete for a caucus showing that will boost their campaigns even if they don’t beat Trump.
“With our folks, they’re committed, they’re gonna be there,” DeSantis said told CNN’s “State of the Union,” noting that the Republican calendar doesn’t end with Iowa. “We’re going to have a good night.”
Each of the more than halfdozen Iowans in Indianola who were interviewed in line were adamant about their plans to support Trump and had considered no other candidate.
“If you really believe in something, and you’re willing to fight, you’re not going to let anything stand in your way, not even a little cold,” said 71-year-old Kathy DeAngelo, a retired hospital administrative employee.