URBANDALE, Iowa — Wrapping up his speech here the other day before a modest audience made up mostly of seniors, Donald Trump Jr. sounded a note of urgency about the increasingly dire weather forecast for Monday night’s Iowa Republican caucuses.
Iowa
Opinion | Trump’s toughest opponent in Iowa isn’t DeSantis, Haley or the weather
His father’s campaign team is well aware that the former president is up against two sets of challengers in the first contest of the 2024 campaign season.
There are the other candidates, sure. But probably more formidable for Trump to beat are the sky-high expectations that have been set. His lead in the latest pre-caucus polls has grown to more than 30 percentage points, far greater than has ever been seen before in a competitive GOP contest this close to the caucus date.
One thing that has always been true about Iowa’s quirky process for selecting presidential candidates is that you can’t really tell what is real and what is illusion until neighbors actually gather in more than 1,600 high school gyms and libraries and churches across the state.
Going into the Iowa caucuses, part of the ritual is for campaigns to thump their chests — bragging about how many doors they have knocked on, how many Iowans have signed cards promising to caucus for them, how much of the state they have covered.
Or they crow about the enticements they are offering to assure supporters will show up for them. In 2008, early Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton’s operation handed out more than 600 snow shovels, apparently not understanding that it is the rare Iowan who doesn’t already have their own.
Her campaign that year also spent $95,000 on caucus-night deli sandwiches. A huge pile of them sat untouched on a table at the caucus I attended that year. Clinton, for all her largesse, came in a disappointing third to her fellow senators Barack Obama and John Edwards.
This year, the candidate who most closely followed what was considered the traditional Iowa formula is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. He has visited every one of the state’s 99 counties. His super PAC claims to have knocked on more than 900,000 doors. He has lined up the most high-profile endorsements, including popular Gov. Kim Reynolds and evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats.
At a breakfast hosted by Bloomberg News on Friday, DeSantis deputy campaign manager David Polyansky said: “There won’t be a single Iowa Republican that turns out that night that will not either have met Ron DeSantis or had the opportunity to meet him. Ask him a question, take a picture with him, shake his hand. Not a one.”
Yet the traditional Iowa formula seems to have lost its power. Trump hasn’t done any of that personal, ground-level campaigning. And it will surprise no one if former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley — who has had a far lighter footprint here, though she tells audiences, “I have been campaigning all over this sweet state for eleven months” — noses ahead of DeSantis on caucus night.
The weather, however, makes caucus night more unpredictable than ever. Never before has Mother Nature scrambled everyone’s plans with such fury as she has this year. A blizzard, below-zero temperatures, and fierce winds forced all three of the leading campaigns to cancel in-person events they had planned for the final weekend. Current forecasts for caucus night have temperatures the National Weather Service has called “life-threatening” getting even colder.
There are two schools of thought about what all of this means. One, which the Trump campaign is counting on, holds that the former president’s supporters are the most devoted, and therefore most likely to brave the elements on his behalf. The other, which his competitors are hoping will be true, is that Trump’s lead may have lulled his backers — which, polls suggest, disproportionately include people who have never caucused before — into complacency, to the point where they feel their vote won’t make much of a difference, so why not stay in their toasty homes and watch the results on television.
Among the audience at Don Jr.’s appearance in Urbandale was Gary Leffler, 62, who was proudly wearing a white cap embroidered in big gold letters: TRUMP CAUCUS CAPTAIN. He will be running things for the former president at Precinct 118 in West Des Moines.
When I asked Leffler how he plans to assure people show up for his candidate, he showed me an eight-page list of what he said were 160 names and said he is calling all of them. So far, Leffler said, he is hearing that nothing is going to keep them away from the Learning Resource Center where Precinct 118 will meet.
Except for one couple, both of whom are 94 years old. One of them told Leffler, “I ain’t going out in that.”
DES MOINES, Iowa (Gray Media Iowa State Capitol Bureau) — Iowa’s primary election is Tuesday, and candidates across the state are making their final push to voters.
One of the most closely watched contests is the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. The winner will advance to November’s general election to compete for Senator Joni Ernst’s seat.
Iowa State Senator Zach Wahls and State Representative Josh Turek are competing for the Democratic nomination.
Wahls spent Monday in Des Moines speaking with voters about the issues they want addressed in Washington.
“It’s time for change. We’ve been talking about it from day one. Iowans have been failed by leaders in both parties for far too long,” Wahls said. “In order to get the change that we need, we need a leader and a fighter who’s willing to challenge the broken status quo and clean up the corruption in Washington DC.”
Turek toured the state during the final days of the race. He was in Sioux City Friday and said he will represent working class Iowans if elected.
“I come from a working class family, a working class community, somebody that’s gone through a lot of hardships, a lot of struggle, both on the economic and on the health care side,” Turek said. “I think what’s fundamentally wrong with DC right now is we’ve got enough millionaires up there. I’m the only one in this race that’s not a millionaire.”
For the first time in more than a decade, Iowa will have an open U.S. Senate seat.
While campaigning, candidates have heard concerns ranging from affordability and housing costs to agriculture and water quality.
Polls open Tuesday morning across Iowa.
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Isabella Warren covers state government and politics for Gray Media-owned stations in Iowa. Email her at isabella.warren@kcrg.com; and follow her on Facebook at Isabella Warren TV on X/Twitter@isabellaw_gray, and on Instagram@IsabellaWarrenTV.
Copyright 2026 Gray Media Iowa State Capitol Bureau. All rights reserved.
When to call 911 and when to use non-emergency lines
This video explains the importance of knowing when to call 911 for emergencies and when to use non-emergency lines for less critical situations.
A pair of teenagers recently pleaded guilty to kidnapping and attacking a fellow teen male.
Nailea Leverette and Albert Mlala, both 18, pleaded guilty on May 28 to third-degree kidnapping, willful injury causing serious injury, and assault with a dangerous weapon.
Leverette and Mlala invited a 17-year-old boy to Mlala’s Altoona home on Nov. 2, 2025, where they led him to the basement and confronted him about alleged sexual abuse, according to court filings.
The two then allegedly tortured and beat the boy with a baseball bat and whipped him with a cut vacuum cord for three hours, leaving him with significant injuries, according to criminal complaints.
The boy, who has not been named publicly, said that Mlala displayed a gun at one point. The male was eventually able to make an excuse to leave the basement and the custody of the fellow teens.
Leverette and Mlala, both 17 at the time of the crime, were charged as adults with first-degree kidnapping.
The pair pleaded guilty after initially pleading not guilty.
Mlala was provided with a pretrial release on May 29, according to court filings. Leverette was ordered to be released from custody on Nov. 25, 2025.
Mlala is scheduled to be sentenced on July 31. Leverette will be sentenced on Aug. 7.
Kyle Werner is the breaking news and public safety reporter for the Register. Reach him at kwerner@registermedia.com.
The Iowa Lottery offers several draw games for those aiming to win big with rewards ranging from $1,000 to millions. The most an Iowan has ever won from playing the lottery was $343 million in 2018 off the Powerball.
Don’t miss out on the winnings. Here’s a look at Sunday, May 31, 2026, winning numbers for each game:
Winning Pick-3 numbers from May 31 drawing
Midday: 9-9-4
Evening: 6-1-0
Check Pick-3 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Pick-4 numbers from May 31 drawing
Midday: 5-3-2-7
Evening: 5-3-0-0
Check Pick-4 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from May 31 drawing
03-11-26-45-56, Bonus: 05
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
When are the Iowa Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 9:59 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 10:00 p.m. CT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lotto America: 9:15 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Lucky for Life: 9:38 p.m. CT daily.
- Pick 3 (Day): 12:20 p.m. CT daily.
- Pick 3 (Evening): 10:00 p.m. CT daily.
- Pick 4 (Day): 12:20 p.m. CT daily.
- Pick 4 (Evening): 10:00 p.m. CT daily.
- Millionaire for Life: 10:15 p.m. CT daily.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by an Iowa editor. You can send feedback using this form.
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