Iowa

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ’ senior advisers are outlining a difficult path to the Republican presidential nomination that can succeed only by first denying former President Donald Trump “a big win” in Iowa, where the DeSantis campaign is promising to leverage the “vast statewide political operation” of his newest major endorser, Gov. Kim Reynolds.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Donald Trump will headline his eighth campaign event in Iowa in a little more than a month on Sunday as part of the former president’s accelerated fall schedule leading up to the first-in-the-nation caucuses in January.

Trump’s planned speech at the historic Orpheum Theater in downtown Sioux City, in GOP-heavy western Iowa, follows events Monday in New Hampshire and Saturday in Nevada. The Republican’s campaign has long tried to show its dominance over his rivals with big early-state victories.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — One of the 10 teenagers charged in a deadly 2022 shooting at an Iowa high school now wants to withdraw his guilty plea.

Octavio Lopez Sanchez Jr. was originally charged with first-degree murder, two counts of attempted murder, and two counts of willful injury-causing serious injury. In August, Lopez Sanchez agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder and two counts of willful injury, WHO-TV reported. He was scheduled to face sentencing Nov. 7.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — By the time Donald Trump returns to Iowa on Monday, the Republican former president will have drawn more than 10,000 people to his events in the state in less than a month.

There’s no guarantee his crowds will translate to support in the state’s Jan. 15 caucuses, which will launch the 2024 nominating cycle. But unlike his seat-of-the-pants campaign in 2016, he has a more sophisticated organization to capitalize on his high-wattage events and often emphasizes in his remarks how to participate in the caucuses.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — Former President Donald Trump and other GOP contenders tried to lay blame on the Biden administration after Hamas militants launched the deadliest attack on Israel in decades, citing a $6 billion transfer to Iran that administration officials insisted Saturday had yet to be spent.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Donald Trump on Saturday called for a show of strength in Iowa, arguing before big audiences that dominating in the Republican presidential caucuses in January would signal to voters around the country his strength in the November election next year.

“We have to win big,” Trump told about 2,500 in a downtown Cedar Rapids hotel ballroom on his second of stops, part of a fall push to lock in supporters. “I think we’re in great shape in the primary. But it sets a tone for the general election.”

Iowa. (AP) —Over the past two weeks, Donald Trump said shoplifters should be immediately shot, suggested the United States’ top general be executed and mocked a political opponent’s husband who was beaten with a hammer.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Having stood out in two presidential debates, Nikki Haley has booked her largest venue in Iowa since launching her campaign. She’s hoping to fill a 600-person hall in a western Des Moines suburb on Saturday.

That would be a huge number for most of her rivals. It’s also less than the smallest crowds usually drawn by Donald Trump, who is dominating the Republican field for the 2024 Iowa caucuses less than four months away.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Some of Donald Trump ‘s top rivals for the Republican presidential nomination will address a gathering of influential Iowa evangelical Christians on Saturday night, hoping to woo them away from the former president at an event he is skipping.

AMES, Iowa (AP) — Donald Trump stepped out of a fraternity house to the cheers of hundreds of Iowa State University students and tossed autographed footballs into the crowd.

“I guess the youth likes Trump,” he said over the cheers of the students, speaking to the Right Side Broadcasting Network, which supports his candidacy.

Then, the former president entered a motorcade to head to a private stadium suite where he watched the school’s annual football grudge match Saturday with the University of Iowa.