More Republican presidential hopefuls are flocking to Iowa this weekend.
According voters at the Iowa State Fair, it's a chance for the candidates to make their case.
It is.
And we talked with some voters who say their minds are already made up and others say they are concerned about the latest indictments of Donald Trump CNN, senior national correspondent Kyung Lah joining us now from Des Moines.
Hi Kyung.
Good morning.
What more are you hearing from voters there?
Good morning, Amara and Rahel.
The State Fair here is just starting to open up and people are just starting to come in and this is really sort of the main event day, at least politically.
That's where we're going to see the arrival of Donald Trump and Ronda Santos almost at about the exact time.
Although we don't anticipate that they're actually going to see each other face to face and, and you know, never one to follow tradition.
Donald Trump is not going to do the traditional Iowa State Fair visits that involve a soap box or some of the retail politics that Iowans are used to here at the state fair.
I want to show you who he is bringing this, uh you might think of it as more trolling to get inside the Santi's head.
He's bringing a number of us representatives from the state of Florida, nine of them.
In fact, to walk with him to make the point that the governor of Florida can't draw support even from people in his own state.
So this type of trolling doesn't work with Iowans, Iowa Republicans who we spoke to appear a bit mixed.
Some who say they don't believe the DOJ has any legitimacy in this case involving Donald Trump.
But I want you to take a listen because it's not exactly uniform.
Like I say, I know in my area it's Trump country are the indictments changing how you feel.
No, because I do think a lot of that is for effect.
A lot of those are trumped up.
I don't find the charges against him being trumped up at all.
That's my opinion.
So Rahel and Ara uniformly, yes, polls are showing that Donald Trump is a pace setter in this primary.
He is ahead of everybody but here in Iowa because of that little dissent, you hear, they do wonder if that is going to hold all the way until January and we'll see some of that play out today and it'll be really interesting, Kyung to see the crowds.
I mean, today is sort of the main event we've already seen pretty big crowds there at the Iowa State Fair.
So a lot to watch Kyung Lah.
Great to see you.
Thank you.
I saw Kyung eating some food on the air the other day.
I, I wanna know about some of the good fried foods you tried Kyung?
Anything in particular?
Oh my God.
The deep fried strawberry shortcake.
Oh, wow.
Anything deep fried, to be honest.
That sounds amazing.
All right, Kyung Lah.
Thank you.
All right, for more.
Now on the Iowa State Fair and its significance in the presidential race.
Let's bring in Brian and Steel.
She is a chief politics reporter for the Des Moines Register.
Hi there, Brian.
Uh So first off, talk to us more about, you know why the state fair is such an important stop for all the presidential candidates.
So the Iowa State Fair brings in uh people from every corner of the state.
They're, they're coming into Des Moines, they're staying for a day, they're staying for multiple days.
And so it's really a chance to meet people from all across the state all in one swing and it's really just a fun event, right?
People are here with their families.
They're having a good time.
It's a chance for these candidates to really show that they can connect with Iowans.
One on one, meet them face to face, have a conversation and just show that they're a real person, right?
But it's also just, um you know, all about the optics.
There are so many um reporters there, these days that there are so many TV, cameras.
It's a chance for the, these lesser known candidates to really have a moment to try and break out of the pack.
They're also around trying to sign up donors, those folks who are still trying to get on the debate stage next month and then for these bigger candidates like Donald Trump, like Rhonda Santos who work today, it's a moment to try and one up each other and have a little bit of gamesmanship as we're seeing.
All right.
So speaking of 11 upping each other and optics, what about the optics of Donald Trump showing up to the fair with this entourage of nine Florida Republicans who have endorsed him.
Obviously, that is an aim, a swipe at De Santis, I guess.
You know, what's the strategy?
Will it work?
Do Iowans care?
Well, it is a big swipe at Rhoda Santi, right.
He's trying to show that even people in Florida his home state prefer Donald Trump over RDA Santi.
But Rhoda Santi, of course, uh, you know, punched back, he's, he's announced that he's bringing about a dozen Iowa endorsers with him to the Iowa State Fair today.
And, and that message is very much that it doesn't matter at this point what Floridians think this is about the Iowa caucuses that are happening in January.
It matters how Iowans feel about these candidates.
And he's saying, look, I've got more endorsements here in this state.
Than you do.
And I'm gonna bring them with me to the Iowa State Fair.
So we're seeing some of that back and forth and I, I think it is true that Iowans, you know, care more about who, who people that they know and respect in this state are endorsing.
You know, they're looking for guidance from, you know, some of their elected officials who, who really do have a lot of access to these candidates for what they think.
So at the end of the day, we'll see how, um you know, how meaningful endorsements really are, but we're seeing kind of that back and forth today and, and as you heard, both of these candidates will be at the state fair at about the same time today.
And so Donald Trump is certainly known for spectacle in 2015 when he was campaigning, he came to the Iowa State Fair in a helicopter, he was giving out free helicopter rides to kids.
So we'll see if he tries to, you know, one up himself and, and create a bigger show today.
What about the influence of the Iowa governor, a Republican Reynolds?
We know that she's very popular in the state.
She's a rising star in the Republican Party.
She is not endorsing anyone, at least, not just yet.
She's getting attacks from Trump as you heard from Kyung Lah reporting because of her neutrality.
Will you expect candidates to take advantage of that?
Is it going to backfire the fact that Trump is not participating in this fair side chat with the governor and instead attacking this popular Republican in the state.
Well, I think when Donald Trump made those comments about Kim Reynolds, it raised a lot of eyebrows here in Iowa.
You know, there was even a state senator who said he switched his endorsement from Donald Trump to Rhoda Santi because of those comments.
You know, the governor here is really beloved among Iowa Republicans.
And so it's, it's an interesting choice to skip her, um, her fair side chat series that she's doing a series of Q and A s with these candidates.
Um, but, you know, I think Donald Trump has shown throughout this campaign that, that he, um, you know, thinks he's, he's bigger than that.
He can draw these big crowds, he can create events for himself and, and he's not necessarily willing to lend his, um, you know, star power as it were to some of these other events.
And so I don't know that that's necessarily a dick at the governor.
He travels with a lot of security that can make some of these smaller events more difficult.
You know, he hasn't outlined exactly what he plans to do at the state fair today, but I expect that if he tries to move through the crowd at all, it's going to draw a pretty sizable group of people.
I'm, I'm not sure exactly how that's going to go for him.
So it's an interesting choice.
Governor Kim Reynolds certainly has a lot of influence and she's decided that she's not going to endorse this cycle.
She thinks it's more important for Iowans to make that choice and for her not to tip the scales maybe in favor of one candidate or the other Iowa Republicans and Iowa Democrats agree.
I think that, that this is a state where people should be able to come without a huge, a huge war chest.
They should be able to have an even playing field and move, move the needle by shaking hands and doing the kinds of things that we're going to see today at the fair.
Brian.
Thank you very much.