With the holidays approaching and the first Republican nominating contest a month away, the GOP presidential contenders will urgently spread across the early voting states in the coming days for what is likely the last full weekend of heavy campaigning before the new year.
Former President Donald Trump will hold a rally Saturday in New Hampshire, seeking to maintain his grip on a state that delivered his first primary victory on his way to winning the GOP nomination in 2016. Trump will follow up with appearances in Nevada on Sunday and Iowa on Tuesday as he ramps up his end-of-year political activity.
The burst of campaigning underscores an aggressive effort by his team to maintain his dominating lead when polls give way to actual voting. His advisers have privately voiced concerns that Trump supporters could simply assume he has a comfortable advantage in the race and is not reliant on their votes.
“We are leading by a lot, but you have to go out and vote,” Trump told supporters Wednesday night in Iowa.
The rest of the field is in a race against time to catch the front-runner – and their calendars reflect the intensifying push to slow Trump’s path to the nomination.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will spend Friday in New Hampshire before turning his attention back to Iowa on Saturday and for much of the foreseeable future until the January 15 caucuses. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has plans to visit the Hawkeye State on Sunday and will remain there until the middle of next week. Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has eight events planned over the next two days in Iowa.
The flurry of activity follows one of the most intriguing weeks to date in a race that so far has lacked breakout moments. Trump’s ongoing legal peril, marked by court appearances, a dizzying array of legal filings and unprecedented indictments of a former president, has…
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