Blizzard freezes 2024 field in final sprint to Iowa caucuses

CNN —

The blizzard that hit Iowa on Friday left the 2024 Republican presidential field frozen heading into the final weekend before Monday night’s caucuses, with candidates paring back their schedules and campaigns grappling with questions about whether people will turn out amid record-low temperatures.

Former President Donald Trump scrapped most of his Iowa campaign schedule this weekend, canceling three of the four rallies he’d planned to hold and announcing telephone events instead.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley – who polls suggest are battling for a second-place finish and an opportunity to claim momentum when the race shifts to New Hampshire on Tuesday – both canceled what was expected to be a busy day of campaigning Friday.

A man clears snow off a sidewalk Friday, Jan. 12, 2024, in Des Moines, Iowa.

‘Life-threatening’ blizzard will slam Iowa as record-low temps or tornado-spawning storms could hit the South and East Coast

As a dangerous Arctic blast hits the central United States, Iowa is expected to have its coldest caucuses ever, and its coldest January day in at least five years, on Monday — with subzero temperatures and wind chills as low as minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

Heading into a weekend that is traditionally jam-packed with candidates sprinting across Iowa, it’s not clear whether 2024 contenders will be able to hold campaign events at all — or whether voters will fight the frigid conditions to attend them.

The weather left Republican presidential contenders and their aides wondering aloud who would show up to the caucuses — and what their campaigns could do in the meantime.

“I definitely know I’m not in South Carolina anymore. It is beyond cold,” Haley