(NewsNation) — The Iowa caucuses are here. The first-in-the-nation contest in the GOP presidential primary race takes place Monday in the Hawkeye State with former President Donald Trump holding overwhelming support from Iowa voters.
Candidates have been braving the cold the past weekend, trying to make their final pleas before Monday’s vote.
Trump’s campaign has some last-minute surrogate events, hosting meet and greets with a long list of Republican members of Congress and other GOP leaders throughout the nation.
While a win for Trump seems all but inevitable, he has still been spending more time attacking the other Republican hopefuls on the campaign trail, aiming at his now top rival in the race: Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
“The only people getting rich right now are Joe Biden’s donors and Nikki Haley’s donors. She happens to be a globalist by the way, I know her very well,” Trump said. “She’s not up to the job, I can tell you.”
Haley pulled ahead of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for the second-place ranking in the final stretch. The two have been locked in a battle for second place on the campaign trail.
Despite the below-zero temperatures, DeSantis plans to make appearances at three in-person events Monday before the caucuses kick-off.
Haley will be taking a back seat from campaigning, but like DeSantis, has pleaded with voters to bundle up and show up to vote, asking Iowans to bring friends and family with them to the polls.
“We need you to get out there and caucus. We need to make sure you layer up in case you’re standing in line. We need you to make sure you bring your ID. We need you to make sure you bring people with you,” Haley said. “If you go out and caucus for us, and if you bring 4 or 5 other people with you, that’s going to pack a huge punch.”
Although he has struggled in the final stretch to garner significant voter support, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy isn’t giving up just yet. He will be hosting three events on Monday and a watch party in the Hawkeye State ahead of the vote.
The majority of Iowa voters who have spoken with NewsNation say despite the GOP hopefuls’ final attempts to campaign, they are going into tonight’s caucuses with their decided candidate already in mind.
“We are caucusing for Trump and I just like that he stands well for biblical views,” Iowa voter Becky Crawley said. “I’m not so sure Ron has a handle on things. He’s kind of flip-flopping a lot. There’s that certain something I’m not sure he has all the way that I think Nikki does.”
