(NewsNation) — The unrelenting weather in Iowa is once again forcing some presidential hopefuls to cancel their campaign events. With just three days to go until the Iowa caucuses, another massive winter storm could prevent candidates from using these crucial last days to campaign.
Late Thursday night, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley‘s campaign decided to cancel all in-person events set for Friday due to “potentially dangerous weather conditions.” Instead, she will be hosting telephone town halls with voters.
Haley’s other competitors are moving forward with some of their events. Trump has called on Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake to campaign on his behalf at a surrogate event Friday. Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has four stops scheduled throughout the day. DeSantis attended his first event Friday, but his PAC canceled his next two and said events in Pella and Cralville scheduled for later in the day were on for now.
During one impromptu gathering, DeSantis said he’s confident people will turn out for the caucuses.
“What it does for the overall turnout, I mean, nobody can forecast what the turnout is gonna be,” he said. “Anyone that tells you they can do that is not it’s not being honest. It’s a major wildcard.”
Haley pleaded with Iowa residents during her Cedar Rapids town hall to brave the cold and show up to vote.
“I know it’s going to be negative 15 on Monday. I don’t even know what that is. I literally can’t comprehend it,” Haley said. “But I’m going to be out there and I want you to go out there.”
According to the latest Suffolk University poll, Haley surged past Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, leading him by nine points. This comes just days after the two were polling neck-and-neck.
Regardless, she’s still a distant second behind former President Donald Trump who has 54% support in Iowa.
Iowans claim they are used to snowy conditions, but the super cold temperatures could possibly inspire some of them to stay home on caucus day.
“It’s such an important caucus season this year. I expect a great turnout, but we just never know,” Iowa resident Alex Hull said. “We never know how much snow we’re actually going to get tomorrow, and then it’s going to get super cold Sunday and Monday.”
As of Friday morning, snow continued to pile up and temperatures have been predicted to drop to potentially record-breaking below-zero lows in the coming days.
Reuters contributed to this report.
