Iowa Republicans will caucus on Jan. 15, casting the first votes of the 2024 election season.
The decades-old voting contest kicks off the GOP presidential primaries.
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Former President Donald Trump, broadly considered the GOP frontrunner, holds a commanding lead in the polls. Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who went head-to-head in last week’s GOP debate, are vying to offer voters an alternative and dislodge support for Trump.
WATCH: GOP contenders make final push in Iowa ahead of caucuses
Unlike in traditional primaries, caucus voters must appear in person at local party meetings to vote. And for the 2024 election, the process looks a little different, with Iowa Democrats opting for mail-in ballots instead.
Here’s what to know about the caucuses and how to watch the live results.
The Iowa caucuses will be begin around 7 p.m. CT on Monday, Jan. 15.
Iowa Republicans will vote in person for their party’s nominee. Caucusgoers will gather at designated locations, like schools, churches and gymnasiums, to cast their votes.
MORE: Real-time Iowa Caucus Results 2024
Democrats will also caucus on the same day, but only to conduct party business. That’s because the Democratic National Convention, at President Joe Biden’s request, dropped Iowa from its early voting lineup.
Instead of hosting an in-person presidential preference contest, Iowa Democrats have until Feb. 19 to request a “presidential preference card” and mail in their vote. The results will be released on March 5, also known as “Super Tuesday.”
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Forty delegates are up for grabs in Iowa. GOP candidates will win delegates from Iowa corresponding to their share of the statewide vote.
There are 2,469 total Republican delegates who will vote at the GOP’s 2024 political convention in Milwaukee this summer, and to win the party’s nomination, a candidate must get a majority of these votes.
Coverage of the 2024 Iowa caucuses will begin at 6 p.m. Eastern on Monday, Jan. 15.
The PBS NewsHour’s Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett will co-anchor the evening’s regular broadcast, which will feature correspondent Lisa Desjardins in Iowa.
Desjardins will offer an update at 9 p.m. ET, and live special coverage begins at 11 p.m. ET. Check your local listings to find the PBS station near you, or watch online here or in the player above.
Follow Desjardins on X, formerly known as Twitter, for updates throughout the night.
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The remaining candidates are:
Registered Republicans will be able to vote for any candidate because there’s no set list of authorized candidates, according to the Associated Press.
The Iowa Republican Party will be tracking results for Trump, DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy, businessman Ryan Binkley, Hutchinson, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (who dropped out on Wednesday) and “Other.”
In 2020, Pete Buttigieg won the Democratic caucus, beating eventual nominee and general election winner President Joe Biden.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz won the 2016 Republican caucus. Hillary Clinton won the Democratic caucus that year, narrowly beating Bernie Sanders.
Trump has a sizable lead in polling and is expected to win the caucus, but the question is how commanding his win will be, Radio Iowa news director Kay Henderson told the NewsHour.
“The key here is, what is the margin between Trump and these two main challengers — DeSantis and Nikki Haley?” Henderson said.
(We’ll remind here, as we do during election season, that polls are a snapshot in time and things can change in the runup to voting).
READ MORE: What polling does — and doesn’t — tell us
Trump faces a historic 91 felony counts across four criminal cases. He’s appeared in court between appearances on the campaign trail. In the final week leading up to the caucus, the three candidates have been hitting their opponents hard, with Trump saying Haley would sell out voters “just like she sold me out,” and Haley saying Trump has “been on a temper tantrum every day.”
Meanwhile, DeSantis has said he’s the candidate for the people.
“The choice on the 15th is clear,” he said ahead of the caucuses. “Donald Trump is running for his issues. Nikki Haley is running for her donors’ issues. I’m running for your issues and your family’s issues and to turn this country around.”
Less than a week after Iowa caucusgoers convene, New Hampshire voters will head to the polls. The Granite State’s primaries are on Tuesday, Jan. 23.
More 2024 election coverage:
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