NORTH TEXAS – After months of campaigning in the Hawkeye State, Republican voters in Iowa are set to hold caucuses and decide who will win the first-in-the-nation contest for President.

Heading into the caucuses, the Real Clear Politics average of polls between January 5th and 14th shows former President Donald Trump in first place by a wide margin at 52.5%, continuing a months-long trend.

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who served as Trump’s U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, has risen to second place with 18.8%, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has dropped to third place with 15.7%. 

Tech billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy remains in fourth at 6.8%.

We spoke with four North Texas Republicans who each support a different candidate and asked them why they believe their candidates are best positioned to beat President Joe Biden in November. 

Orlando Salazar, who supports Trump said, “He was terrific the first time around. He fulfilled a lot of the promises that he said he was going to do. He moved Israel’s, our embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, which many, many presidents had promised to do, and he actually did it. He shut down the border. Our economy was terrific. He rebuilt our military.” 

Sanjay Narayan, who backs Ramaswamy said, “I think President Trump has a fantastic record to run on, which is one of the ironies of this because I think Vivek is one of the best defenders of President Trump’s legacy and has the ability to not only defend that but also move America first to the next iteration which is how do we bring the country together by addressing what is really at the core crux of the issue, a loss of national identity.” 

Tina Aviles, who supports Haley said, “Poll after poll is showing that Nikki Haley is surging because she is a voice of reason in this fray, and that is what Americans are looking for, and the way that we’re seeing this. We’re looking at some critical swing states that are going to decide the vote. And in poll after poll is showing that Nikki Haley will be able to be the one who could beat Joe Biden in those critical swing states.” 

Jonathan Boos, who believes DeSantis should become the nominee said, “Ron DeSantis is best positioned to do that for a couple of reasons. First, I think he’s one of the few candidates that can unite both the Donald Trump wing of the party and then maybe Nikki Haley, Chris Christie wing of the party. Ron DeSantis won his reelection overwhelmingly in the State of Florida. So, between those two things and just his record that he’s able to run on and being able to just relate to kind of an average person, I think he’s going to be the strongest candidate in November against Joe Biden.” 

There are no caucuses for Iowa Democrats this year because President Biden wanted South Carolina, a more diverse state, to be his party’s first Presidential contest.

Iowa Democrats can vote for their preferences by mail and results will be announced on Super Tuesday, March 5, the same day Texas holds its primary.

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