There’s always been a symbiosis between Donald Trump and right-wing rhetoric. His 2016 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination was successful — surprisingly successful — because of his willingness to embrace arguments and assertions that were considered beyond the pale for his more traditional opponents. By picking out and then defending (to whatever extent was […]Read More

The Iowa Republican caucuses convene at 7 p.m. Central time Monday, and it shouldn’t take too long to learn who prevailed in the first nominating contest of the 2024 presidential campaign season. Iowa Republican voters will gather at local precincts — a school gym, church or other community space — across the state. Once they […]Read More

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Curtis Gauley hadn’t paid much attention to Nikki Haley. Then the attack ads started. They called Haley “Tricky Nikki,” likened her to Hillary Clinton and told Iowans she shouldn’t be trusted. Somebody’s scared of her, thought Gauley, a retired corrections officer in his 50s. He was intrigued. So he went to […]Read More

President Biden’s campaign effort raised $97 million in the last three months of 2023, a sign of accelerating donor interest in his campaign that notched more money than former president Barack Obama during the same period of his reelection. The fundraising total includes donations to Biden’s campaign account and affiliated state and national party committees, […]Read More

DES MOINES — Eligh Cade spiraled in 2017 when he read President Donald Trump’s tweet announcing a ban on transgender people in the military, unsure of what would happen to him. Trump’s declaration left then-active transgender soldiers such as Cade scrambling for answers, although they were able to stay in the military. Cade, 26, now […]Read More

Republican presidential candidates trudged through blistering subzero temperatures in Iowa on Sunday to deliver closing arguments ahead of Monday’s long-awaited caucuses — the first nominating contest in an election year shaping up as a test of starkly competing political visions and American democracy. Donald Trump, the clear Republican polling leader, offered a grievance-laden and defiant […]Read More

AMES, Iowa — It was another big crowd that greeted Nikki Haley at a barbecue restaurant here on Sunday afternoon. Onlookers unable to squeeze in peered through the windows of the room where she was speaking. On the eve of Monday’s caucuses, her candidacy continues to draw attention. To most Americans, Iowa’s precinct caucuses that […]Read More

Former president Donald Trump on Saturday broke his de facto nonaggression pact with Vivek Ramaswamy, attacking the biotech entrepreneur and long-shot presidential candidate in a social media post, writing: “a vote for Vivek is a vote for the ‘other side.’” “Vivek started his campaign as a great supporter, ‘the best President in generations,’ etc,” Trump […]Read More

DES MOINES — Bob Ray has participated in Iowa’s Republican caucuses in the past, but not this year. Ray is blind, and with snow clogging the roads and subzero temperatures gripping the state, showing up on Monday is a non-starter. “I’m 75 years old, and I’m not going to want to get out that night,” […]Read More

Just a few weeks into his tenure as House Speaker, Mike Johnson (R-La.) called Rep. Max L. Miller into his office to talk about how to fund the government as new deadlines loomed in early 2024. In the meeting, the Ohio Republican brought up his displeasure that Johnson’s first act as speaker was to pair […]Read More