Iowa snowstorm upends campaigning less than 1 week before Republican caucuses

High winds, freezing temperatures and heavy precipitation put most of Iowa under a winter storm warning this week — dropping up to 6 inches in observed snow in parts of the state, with up to a foot forecast through Wednesday. That upended presidential campaigning in the final days before next Monday's caucuses start the 2024 Republican primary race.

Donald Trump's campaign initially scuttled two events featuring Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders and Gov. Mike Huckabee in Ottumwa and Des Moines on Monday due to bad weather preventing travel.

Trump then canceled another surrogate event, on Tuesday night with former Acting U.S. Attorney General Matt Whitaker, after comedian Roseanne Barr pulled out Monday night from appearing with Whitaker due to weather.

Nikki Haley's event in Sioux City on Monday befell a similar fate, with the campaign telling ABC News that weather prevented her arrival. The former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador did show up to a scheduled stop in Waukee on Tuesday morning, however.

GOP rival Vivek Ramaswamy had criticized other candidates, especially Haley, for canceling events on Monday as he managed to make it to four of his own stops in northwest Iowa.

«If you can't handle the snow, you're not ready for Xi Jinping,» Ramaswamy told reporters after an event in Sioux City where a few inches of snow had already blanketed the area. «Frankly, if these Iowans, and even people from other states around the country have come here to listen to me, and I made a commitment to be here, I'm gonna do everything in my power to do it.»

But on Tuesday morning, Ramaswamy canceled his first three events after posting on X that it was «effectively impossible» to get to his first stop in Coralville.

Still, Ramaswamy plans