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The Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary are approaching on Jan. 15 and Jan. 23, respectively. These first two statewide events will help determine which Democratic and Republican nominees will end up on the 2024 presidential ballot. Several polls show early favorites, but there is still competition between the candidates.
Straight Arrow News contributor Newt Gingrich asserts that candidates like Nikki Haley have the potential to narrow the gap in popularity. But he remains confident that incumbent President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will be the final nominees.
So I think it’s very likely, [Biden’s] going to insist on running, and he has trillions of dollars in the federal budget and a great ability to guarantee that his many friends stick with him. Remember that Jerry Ford was able to beat Ronald Reagan, and then Jimmy Carter was able to beat Teddy Kennedy inside their own party. Incumbent presidents are tough. So my guess is that you’re going to have Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as the Democratic ticket, and that that’ll be obvious very early, because the Democrats are actually working to keep people off the ballot. They’re blocking Robert Kennedy Jr. from from running in Democratic primaries, through them blocking this unknown Minnesota congressman from running in primaries. So we’ll see how that evolves.
On the Republican side, I believe that it’s really over. We’ll find out on you know, Jan. 15, then we go to Iowa. And on Jan. 23, when they were [sic] primary in New Hampshire — remember that Iowa is a caucus, which means you have to go out physically and spend several hours at a local fire station or a school auditorium or someplace. It’s a long involved process. I participated in both helping other candidates and as a candidate myself, back in 2012.
The ability to turn people out is very important. My guess is, as of right now, Donald Trump is going to win Iowa by a big margin over all of his opponents. Then, eight days later, they’re going to be in New Hampshire, which is a primary and has the added twist that Independents can vote in the Republican primary.
