January 9 - 2024 campaign update

With just days until the Iowa caucuses, former President Donald Trump and his team have shifted to targeting GOP presidential rival Nikki Haley as they seek to slow her recent momentum before the first votes are cast this primary season.

The turn to Trump’s one-time ambassador to the United Nations marks a significant change in strategy for the former president and his campaign. The front-runner had spent the better part of the last year solely attacking Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who had long been considered his top GOP challenger. However, recent polls have shown an unmistakable surge for the former South Carolina governor, particularly in New Hampshire, where a new CNN survey showed Trump’s lead shrinking to single digits.

But even though he has publicly sought to downplay recent polls – and he still holds a commanding lead over the GOP field elsewhere – Trump’s team is taking Haley’s rise seriously, with the former president homing in on her stances on immigration as he seeks to emphasize his own hardline proposals.

During a series of campaign events in Iowa last weekend, Trump leveled his sharpest attacks on Haley yet. And after stopping all ad buys attacking DeSantis, Trump’s campaign launched its first television ad directly taking on Haley on immigration in the Granite State last week. The leading super PAC supporting Trump released its version on the same topic on Monday. Together, they are spending a combined $4.5 million on ads attacking Haley in New Hampshire, attempting to tie her to President Joe Biden’s policies and criticizing her rhetoric on immigration. A Trump adviser said to expect a continued focus on immigration, as they believe it is a top issue for voters in the state.

Trump has made border security and curbing illegal immigration a key part of his White House bid and has escalated his anti-immigrant rhetoric in recent campaign speeches and social media posts.

The Trump campaign blasted out an email on Monday highlighting Haley’s opposition to the travel ban Trump imposed on several Muslim-majority countries while president — a ban he’s vowed to reinstate if elected in 2024 — pointing to Haley’s comments in 2015 that Americans shouldn’t describe illegal immigrants as criminals, and falsely claiming Haley opposed the construction of a border wall.

Read more about Trump's strategy

The 2024 campaign is in full swing. With less than a week until the pivotal Iowa caucuses, Republican candidates are making their final appeal to voters in the Hawkeye State while President Joe Biden fully launches into campaign mode.

Here's are some key things that has happened so far this week:

Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips brushed off low poll numbers and carried on with his long-shot campaign in New Hampshire on Tuesday.

"Well, people don't know who I am yet," the Minnesota congressman said.

Phillips, who launched his bid in late October, again accused the national Democratic party of suppressing candidates.

A new CNN/UNH poll found 69% of likely Democratic primary voters say they will write in President Joe Biden's name, compared with 7% who plan to support Phillips and 6% who say they will vote for author Marianne Williamson.

Phillips told reporters before touring a facility in New Hampshire for homeless veterans he's "listening to people" and "going to do more of it," again slamming Biden for not campaigning in the Granite State. 

Asked how he'll win over more support, when the majority of likely Democratic voters have made up their minds, Phillips answered, "my job is not to persuade anybody, it's not to change their minds. My job is to practice democracy."

He said he would "defer" to how New Hampshire voters feel, but alluded to the Democratic National Committee's warning to the state party that its primary would be meaningless, calling it "not just a dereliction of duty, it's just downright dangerous."

Phillips later told reporters that though the DNC is not barring New Hampshire from holding a Democratic primary altogether, he believes the party is defying democracy because "there's nothing a single voter in the state of New Hampshire could have done" to change state's primary date.

"It's a political party imposing itself and suppressing voters," he said, claiming that if Republican party did the same thing, he would be making the same proclamations "even more loudly."

The Minnesota Democrat started the day by parking his "Government Repair Truck" vehicle along a major street in Manchester in below freezing temperatures, hoping to hold "coffee conversations" with voters outside of a convention hosted by New England College.

Phillips later reshared a post on X that detailed how no voters showed up.

Phillips said his campaign experience was the "most joyful and invigorating American journey imaginable," adding, "I’ve got lots of leftover coffee, if anyone’s thirsty."

Campaign spokesperson Katie Dolan told CNN, "When it proved too cold, we headed inside to chat with voters indoors."

The campaign shared a photo of Phillips posing with a group of young people. It was not clear if they were old enough to vote.

Former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers, who is now running for Senate in Michigan, endorsed Donald Trump for president in a Daily Caller op-ed published Tuesday.

"President Trump’s leadership and policies worked. The economy was booming with record-low unemployment and gas under $2.00 a gallon. The southern border was secure and our communities were safe. Our military was the strongest it had ever been, our allies knew we had their back, and China and Russia were being held in check," he wrote.

He argued that America has been “thrown into chaos” since President Joe Biden took office and criticized the Colorado ruling and Maine decision to remove Trump from their state ballots. 

Rogers was previously critical of Trump.

Last year, when he was considering a presidential bid, he told CBS News that "I don't believe today as I'm sitting here that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee in 2024. Don't believe it."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign went unmentioned during his annual State of the State speech Tuesday, but his remarks from the Tallahassee state capitol appeared aimed at the Iowa caucusgoers — who will soon decide his political fate as much as Floridians.

“We are in the midst of a great upheaval throughout the nation,” DeSantis began, before sharing a dark view of the current state of the country that was deeply critical of the Biden administration and Democratic-run cities like San Francisco, Chicago and Washington, DC.

He ended with a line that nodded to a mission that extended well beyond Florida’s boundaries.

Just as he has in dozens of appearances in Iowa, DeSantis recounted at length his political victories in Florida. He was especially complimentary of the Republican-controlled legislature’s work in 2023 — which he called “monumental” — when lawmakers passed a slate of bills that have served as a platform for his presidential campaign.

“We have put forth a blueprint for America’s revival that has instilled hope into the hearts of millions that a new birth of freedom can emanate from this land once more,” he said. 

At one point, DeSantis quickly ran through a list of more than a dozen conservative policy accomplishments — including new laws to ban Covid-related restrictions, expansion of gun rights and a ban on most abortions after six weeks into a pregnancy.

“Let’s see some other state match that list of achievements,” DeSantis said.

Homestretch to Iowa: The remarks from Tallahassee come six days before Iowa Republicans will caucus to pick a nominee for president.

For DeSantis, who has staked his political future on a strong showing in the Hawkeye State, the visit back to his state capitol marked a rare hiatus from the campaign trail after spending most of the second half of 2023 and early 2024 on the road. 

With his immediate focus on the presidential race, DeSantis has offered few specifics about his future priorities in the state he still governs — a disconnect that was captured by the lack of a forward-looking agenda in his speech. 

“My message is simple: stay the course,” DeSantis said. “The state of our state is strong. Let’s keep doing what works. Let’s continue to make Florida the envy of the nation.”

While DeSantis left his Iowa and New Hampshire travels out of his remarks Tuesday, Democrats in the state legislature seized on it to depict the Republican governor as out of touch with his residents.

DeSantis was scheduled to appear Tuesday night at a town hall hosted by Fox News from Des Moines. However, inclement weather has hammered both Iowa — which is facing blizzard conditions — and Northern Florida — facing storm threats significant enough for DeSantis to declare a state of emergency just before he delivered his address from the House chamber. 

His campaign said travel plans have not yet changed. His office announced he would hold a news conference at the state Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee Tuesday afternoon.

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley showed her appreciation for a full crowd of supporters that attended her "commit to caucus" event — despite a major snowstorm impacting the region.

"Thank you for showing up because I didn’t know if we were going to come see five people, but to see a full house really is great," Haley said. "I really appreciate that."

Haley canceled a campaign event in Sioux City on Monday due to bad weather, but told attendees in Waukee that she was committed on Tuesday to showing up for her supporters “no matter what.”

The former South Carolina governor, who often jokes that the hardest part about running for president is “being cold,” said she now understands why Iowans have told her the past few months in the Hawkeye State have been “mild.”

“This is unbelievable. I’ve been campaigning here for 11 months and now I get why in October, November, and December, when I was like ‘its’ cold’ and they were like ‘no this is it mild.’ I totally get it now,” Haley told the crowd at Mickey’s Irish Pub.

Before saying a truncated version of her stump speech, Haley addressed the Perry High School shooting where a 17-year-old gunman killed a sixth grade student and wounded five other people. 

"Whenever we turn the TV on and see something like that, our hearts fall. It doesn’t matter what state it’s in. it’s the fact that something like this happened again," Haley said.

Haley reflected on her time as South Carolina governor when she had to deal with the 2016 Townville Elementary School shooting.

"I wouldn’t wish that on any parent, and I will say this over and over again until I’m in the White House. We have to deal with the cancer that is mental health in this country. We have to," she added said.

Haley expressed being excited as the first-in-the-nation caucus draws near. 

“We are super excited. It is six days until the caucus. We have been waiting for this. It has come to this moment,” Haley said. 

Haley spoke for about 20 minutes, addressing issues such as the economy, national security, the border crisis, and foreign policy. She didn’t take questions from voters, but she did take pictures following the event.

Haley has no public events scheduled until the CNN GOP Presidential debate on Wednesday night.

Judge Judy Sheindlin, also known as "Judge Judy," endorsed Nikki Haley for president.

Haley called Judy a “no-nonsense lady,” adding she is “honored” to have her support.

 “Judge Judy is a no-nonsense lady who has earned the respect of millions of Americans from her courtroom by being thoughtful, fair, and honest. I’m honored to have her support,” Haley said.

Fox News was the first to report the endorsement.

Judy is currently the presiding judge on Amazon Freevee's show, Judy Justice. Prior to that, she wrapped a 25-year-run of the show, Judge Judy. She was appointed to the bench in New York City's Family Court in 1982 and became the supervising judge of the Manhattan Court in 1986.

Indiana GOP Rep. Greg Pence, former Vice President Mike Pence's brother, said he's not running for reelection.

"In 2017, I ran for Congress because I was Ready to Serve Again. As a former Marine Officer, I approached the job with purpose," Rep. Greg Pence said in a statement. "After three terms, I've made the decision to not file for reelection."

Pence represents Indiana's 6th Congressional District which is strongly Republican and voted for Trump by nearly 40 percentage points in 2020.

Pence is the 16th Republican to announce they won't be seeking reelection to the House.

At most only a few dozen ever come, but they’re following President Joe Biden almost everywhere.

On Friday near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania – as the president was inside giving a searing speech warning that American democracy might collapse if he doesn’t beat Donald Trump – a group of pro-Palestinian protestors stood on a patch of grass outside ticking through rhyming chants like, “Hey hey, ho ho, genocide Joe has got to go!”

On Monday at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, Biden was in the middle of remembering the nine congregants gunned down by a White supremacist in 2015 – quoting the Bible about truth and light being a path out of the darkness – when three people (two White, one Black) stood in a middle pew chanting, “Ceasefire now!”

“If you really care about the lives lost here, then you should honor the lives lost and call for a ceasefire in Palestine!” one of the women called out.

A speech meant to tie the legacy of White supremacy after the Civil War to Trump by calling 2020 election denialism “the Second Lost Cause” and promote his record of achievements for Black Americans suddenly had to detour into international diplomacy and one of the thorniest issues he has faced in office.

Read more on the international diplomacy issue overshadowing the Biden campaign.