Haley, Ramaswamy make Eastern Iowa stops in caucus closing sprint

CEDAR RAPIDS — Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy made campaign stops in Eastern Iowa late last week as part of their sprint to the finish just ahead of the first-in-the-nation, 2024 Iowa Republican presidential precinct caucuses on Monday.

Vivek Ramaswamy

Ohio biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy held events Friday in western and central Iowa, even as the National Weather Service warned of “life-threatening” weather throughout the state and discouraged travel unless absolutely necessary.

Ramaswamy filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday in support of Trump, who has asked the high court to overturn the Colorado Supreme Court's ruling that he is ineligible to appear on the state's ballot.

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Ramaswamy highlighted the move during a campaign stop at The National Czech and Slovak Museum & Library in Cedar Rapids.

He criticized his Republican rivals for declining to say they would remove themselves from the Colorado primary ballot if Trump was ultimately kicked off.

"This is not how any of us should want to win," Ramaswamy said.

Ramaswamy has taken a unique and somewhat puzzling path in the Republican presidential primary. He's presenting himself as Trump's biggest supporter and the natural successor to Trump — even though Trump himself is a 2024 candidate, and polls consistently show the former president leading the field.

Asked by an Iowa voters if he’d consider Trump as a running mate, and vice versa, Ramaswamy said Trump would “be excellent for the job” and would serve as “my most important adviser.” Looking to pull from Trump’s base of supporters, Ramaswamy urged Iowa voters to support him as the candidate who will “save Trump” from “these made-up, trumped-up prosecutions.”

“They are leading us into a trap right now,” Ramaswamy told voters in Cedar Rapids “… They want to narrow this down to a two-horse race between Donald Trump” and a “puppet” of the political establishment in Washington “who they can control.”

“They will then eliminate Trump and trot in their puppet to the White House that's hiding in plain sight,” he said. “So if you think they are going to let Donald Trump get anywhere near that White House again, I'm going to ask you to open your eyes.”

Saying Trump’s “America First” foreign policy agenda doesn't belong to one man, Ramaswamy touted himself as the candidate “with fresh legs” who can push it forward while bringing in a new base of Republican voters, despite struggling to poll past the single digits in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Trump often summed up his foreign policy priorities as “America First.” The isolationist policy stance emphasizes non-intervention and American nationalism and unilateralism, where U.S. national interests should always be the first consideration.

Appearing with Ramaswamy, right-wing commentator Candace Owens called him a “breath of fresh air” and the only candidate in the field that has “presented the possibility that we might actually be able to win our country again.” And attacks against him by primary rivals “seem so remarkably petty,” Owens told a crowd of about 150 people in Cedar Rapids, several of whom said they came to see her.

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Asked if her appearance with Ramaswamy amounted to an endorsement, Owens did not directly answer. She said while she had “never endorsed a candidate in the past,” she came to Iowa because she believed her appearance “would invite more media” and that “people would come out and listen to what he had to say.”

“Vivek is the future for America,” Owens said. “He’s America First. He is one of the brightest minds I’ve ever seen in politics. And I do not believe the media has given him a fair shake.”

Ramaswamy also appeared in Cedar Rapids with GOP former Iowa U.S. Rep. Steve King — who was broadly rebuked by his own party for his comments on white supremacy and later defeated in a primary by now-Rep. Randy Feenstra, who had the backing of party leadership.

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Asked about his strategy in the final push before the caucuses, Ramaswamy said his campaign is bracing “for a late surge.” He pointed to Iowa state Rep. Steve Holt, R-Denison, who announced Wednesday he had switched his endorsement from DeSantis to Ramaswamy.

“Iowa breaks late, and people wait until the end, correctly, to evaluate and make their decisions,” he said. “… I expect Iowans will reward somebody who showed up, put the effort in. … And I think that’s going to be rewarded Monday night. I expect a major shock to the system and will propel us forward to the next phase of the race. And I also want to say this with clarity, we are in this to the very end. Period.”

Nikki Haley

Former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley delivered a slimmed-down version of her regular stump speech to a crowd of about 120 people at The Olympic South Side Theater in Cedar Rapids on Thursday.

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Her daughter, Rena, and son, Nalin, passed out caucus cards.

Haley canceled her scheduled in-person events in Fort Dodge, Le Mars and Council Bluffs because of Friday’s blizzard, which caused whiteout conditions and covered roadways, instead turning the events into “telephone town halls.” She was scheduled to host three “Countdown to Caucus” events Saturday in Eastern Iowa in Black Hawk, Johnson and Scott counties.

In Cedar Rapids, Haley told the crowd the country cannot afford “another nail-biter of an election,” touting polls that showed her performing better in a head-to-head match-up with Democratic President Joe Biden than either Trump or GOP primary rival Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Haley also told voters the thought of a President Kamala Harris “should send a chill up your spine,” suggesting Biden won’t serve a full term if reelected, elevating Vice President Harris.

“We are a country in disarray, and the world is on fire,” she said. “And the only way we get out of this is if we elect a new, conservative leader to carry us forward and leave the negativity and baggage behind, and focus on the solutions of the future.”

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Haley told voters that if they “want to do something different,” they’ll “have to acknowledge some hard truths,” pointing to the fact that Republicans have lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections.

“That’s nothing to be proud of. We should want to win the majority of Americans,” she said.

Haley argued her strong hypothetical showing against Biden would result in more than just a conservative in office.

“That’s bigger than the presidency,” Haley said. “That’s governorships, that’s the house, that’s the Senate, all the way down to school boards. … That’s a mandate to get our economy on track and stop this wasteful spending. That’s a mandate to get our kids reading again and going back to the basics on education. That’s a mandate to secure our borders with no more excuses. That’s a mandate to have law and order back in our country, and that’s a mandate for a strong America that we can all be proud of. Don’t you want that again?”

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Doing that, Haley said, is going to take “courage from every single person in this room.”

“Don’t complain about what happens in the general election if you don’t play in this caucus,” she told voters.

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