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source. on c-span. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. from the nation's capital to wherever you are. because the opinion that matters the most is your own. this is what democracy looks like. c-span, powered by cable.>x "wa" continues. host: we are previewing the iowa caucuses with galen bacharier, a reporter with the des moines register. welcome to the program. guest: thanks for having me. : let's start with a review of how the iowa caucuses work and who can participate and what will be going on on monday. guest: the iowa caucuses, is the first state on the primary calendar for the republicansrepe first permit contest. candidates include former president trump, ron desantis,

nikki haley. 7:00 p.m. monday night across the state, registered republicansilthe end of the nige will know how those results turn out and then the delegates are then assigned depending on a proportion of votes. is the first contest on the republican primary, under it it is a big deal for people involved. things are really revving up. host: how many delegates are up for grabs? guest: i believe it is an 80i-30's. i feel bad that i do not know -- in the high 30's, i feel bad that i do not know. host: the hill says trump eyes evangelical vote as key to iowa.

all the polls are indicating he is considerably ahead in iowa and expected to carry that. what are your thoughts on the event are vote and where that is going in iowa? guest: this historically has been an important base of voters for republicans to tap into. and influence over the policymaking and political discourse. we see a lot of courting of pastors, evangelical leaders of politicians who are in touch with the database. we have seen a couple of candidates make a run and tapping into that vote. this time around the candidate who is still in the has made any appeal to those votes is governor desantis. the cap endorsement of the ceo of the family leader which is the most prominent evangelical organization in the state. the pulling from us and abc news

shows evangelical voters in iowa are still far and away supporters of donald trump. he remains the forefront candidate those voters are supporting and that in part plays a roleokos and expecting -- to perform in polls and expected to perform. host: if you have a question or comment, you could give us a call on our lines. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. you can also text and send us posts on social media. as far as the race for second place between ron desantis and nikki haley, what are you seeing? yomentionethe endorsements governor desantis has been getting. has that shown in people copes. -- in the polls?

as the ground game indicate support for ron desantis? guest: the main problem for ron detop political class support. the endorsements on paper that you would like to have ifhe has, arguably the most powerful republican in the state who said she was g him and has been on the trail. he has a powerful evangelical voice. yes prominent radio with conservative voters. the base has not responded to him in the same way. in our polls, he has not seen much movement. he remained second place in our second poll. heat. his campaign has a super pac that has done a lot of the work for him. they have put in a lot of money

and resources and volunteers. it has not necessarily shown out in the polls. when you look at the nikki haley,t is a campaign that has gotten be the last few weeks in terms of national attention donors to look her way. we have seen polling indicated she has some momentum. while her own ground game was not as robust as the super pac and ron desantis organization had been touting, she has been endorsed by a network that does have the robust ground game and they have been doing some doorknocking■a for her. certainly that is a campaign that has ramped up. host: have you seen any ship, people close in terms of the debate between desantis and nikki haley? guest: it might be too early to tell.

we might get a couple of more polls before the end of the carcass. that was a big moment. the stakes are high for both of them. this really is the final push. i think you saw them going after each other pretty fervently, calling each other lying and mealymouthed, touching a for the website that tells each other's lies. it remains to be seen if either of them can show above t gap and start to separate themselves. be a simple copes that have -- we have seen polls that have hit the up desantis and second-place. it would be hard to tell which one of those is the case. host: we will start with gary in ohio, democrat.

abo that. host: how are you doing? host: good. caller: i wanted to make sure i heard it right.

on monday it starts at 7:00 p.m. he night. is that the actual voting in iowa? if so, is this all in person would they have mail in ballots? guest: everything is in person in the iowa caucuses. the state republican party really touts this. everyone gets there at 7:00 p.m., they receive a paper ballot, they writes down their choice and submit it. the carcass is in charge of every precinct. they tallied the results, do it in front of the room, all the campaigns have a representative. adamant that this is a

transparent process. there is no way for this to be messed with in any real way. those are sent to the republican party. this is a party run system. this is not like a primary election where the state is handling this, this is run by the republican party of iowa. the central party will receive all those results and that is how those are calculated. the aim is for them to have them by the end of the night monday or in some occurrences with weather and whatever else, it could be early tuesday. that is the timeline we are looking at. host: speaking of the weather, how is it going out there and could that have any impact on turnout? guest: absolutely. we are getting the snow in iowa that people were wondering was. we got it just in time for the

caucuses. there is expectation -- we talked to the chair of the iowa republican party this week. head been talking about potentially record turnout. it seems like maybe that will not be the case. he is still looking for robust turnout. we are looking at record low temperatures but looking at snow piling up to the weekend. i have no doubt there are folks who might be encouraged to stay home. all of these campaigns per measures in place to get folks in the polls. something like that is always a factor. i think it is hard to say how about with specific impact the results. host: michael in idaho, independent line. caller: this is michael. host: go ahead. caller: okay.

the thing out to say is -- the thing i wanted to say is, don't always believe with the iowa caucuses. no matter how nasty the weather, don't believe all of the garbage all these candidates a telling you. please research your facts. thank you. host: let's talk to al in battle creek, michigan. good morning. caller: i wanted to ask about two things. election fraud, what are the mechanics? do people physically go the site and vote on a paper ballot? is there id, do you have to present id? 0udo you have to be a member of the republican party? i am really worried about fraud. the second■é question i would he would be, what is a good turnout

for an iowa caucus? is it one million or half a million? guest: to your first point, yes. this is designed -- these are paper ballots. when you come to your site, you need to check in with the precinct, you need to be a registered republican. you will have a site assigned to you. you show up, get your you cast your ballot, you write in whoever your candidate is, you turn it in to the captain and they will the others and send that to the central party. the party is adamant that this is a transparent process. all of this is done in person, no mail in component. the fact that democrats here in iowa were discussing a potential mail in the subject of

a lot of debate and frustration about keeping iowa first in the nation. that is a whole series of events. this is an impersonal process deed to be transparent so that everyone at the caucuses site can see what is happening. as far as turnout, the rerd republican caucus turnout was in 2016. i wrote about this a couple of disco. about 186,000 people showed up. when you look at the entire population, the people who are going to caucus our people who are fairly dial into the political process, following an election this far from the november general contest. this is not necessarily indicative of the entire iowa publishing.

-- i will population. certainly enough people show up to get a sense of what that looks like. host: in wisconsin, democrat. good morning. caller: i have a question about evangelical vote in iowa. it is beyond robust for a man who has certainly lived in life doing the exact opposite of what they value. can you explain the angle of that? guest: absolutely. the evangelical support is something that has been noted by a lot of people. e is not a decisive answer yet. that is a complicated answer. a lot of this comes down to what the end of the day what they want our policy results, folks

who their top issue is abortion. they are antiabortion and what they see in the trump administration is he put the justices in that ended up overturning roe v. wade. folks opposed to running against hope is that that support is a partnership that is convenient instead of diehard loyalty and they're hoping folks are willing to back off and support someone like ron desantis. you talk to supporters and they will say even to supporters supported trump because he promised policy results they liked. folks like bob vander platt who endorsed desantis will say trump is not the right person to lead evangelical voters in the right direction.

he is not good for the party. definitely a couple different schools of thought. that is something we try to report a lot and something a lot of folks and j on. host: jerry is in brooklyn, arkansas. caller: howhost: good. caller: thank you for trying to be honest and open with your reporting. it is a pleasure that we are able to do that in the u.s. it is storming here so if i get disconnected, i apologizwant toe sometimes you don't get that. thank you, too, ma'am. i think it is games. if people will get out and vote with what their gut tells them, i think we will get the president we deserve. stop playing childish games and vote with your gut.

i just want to see thank you again and have a great day. host: david in new york, democrat line. are you there? go righthead. caller: i always just to hear donald trump say things are rigged, but what i am saying is this whole primary thing looks great because -- without having to debate anyone. how are the voters voting properly when he never got challenged by anyone and purposely did this to keep chris christie from questioningo him s insurrection and thinks having to do with classified documents -- things having to do with

classified documents and his indictment? it is the first time in history i have seen it, they allowed a candidate just because he was leaving -- leaving in theu polls not to participate in the process. the whole thing seems to berate. -- seems to be rigged. you don't get to see him, who he truly is. i believe chris christie would cause it to unravel because he would not let up and you would have seen donald trump for the schizophrenic he is. host: go ahead. guest: one thing important to advise -- to emphasize was his decision to not engage in debates decision. a lot of people would have liked

him to show up. to have a front runner to not show up is not helpful for voters. they like to see how he matches up to the people hunting him. his campaign has taken a stance at the iowa and elsewhere. he has done town hall events where candidates show up andhe s campaign has been adamant that their due campaign on their own terms. the gap between them and everyone else is such that they don't believe they have to engage on that level. they have campaigned on their own terms. they make love off the record stops and some smaller venues and shake hands and that he will fly off. he has been on the ground far less but it has not hurt his bowling. his -- his polling. that has been his decision, you

could talk to a lot of republicans that would have liked to see trump get on that stage. it has not been a factor. that has been part of the reason we see the dynamic. host: david mentioned chris christie, he has dropped out of the race. he did not have a lot of support in iowa. i wonder what he did not have very much support and who his supporters might go to. guest: chris christie has not made iowa -- did not make iowa much of his early campaign strategy. he was entirely centralized on new hampshire which makes sense when you consider where he is from in the northeast. a lot more in the po -- a lot more independents and democrats participating up there.

he has not been on the ground in iowa whatsoever. there might be too chicken rack dynamic where he has not been on the ground so he is not have support. hee points in polls. we crunched the numbers on our most recent poll to see if chris christie dropped out, we asked folks who their second or third choice was. it barely made any impact. maybe nikki haley went up one percentage point. everyone else was fairly uninfected. we saw folks supporting chris christie with the most adamant voters in the republican coalition. it remains to be seen where that goes. you would have to thin haley might be the most aligned with what they're looking for. it is difficult to see, especially in iowa where you did i did not see it a shattering revelation. host: wilson on the line for

democrats. good morning. caller: [indiscernible] -- iowa when it doesn't population of the country. thank you. guest: that has been the argument for democrats. there were a number of reasons republicans and it up bumping off iowa as first in the nation. that has been and argument for about the folks here and elsewhere that i will is not representative of the entire country. that is why democrats have gone to south carolina. starting place because they think it is one of the best places you can get in on the

ground and talk to voters and show retail politics. in the era of nationalist politicking, it has been lost. there is a lot of value there. certainly, that is an understandable sentiment from a lot of folks. democrats and folk■s notg& invoe any process, but folks take that seriously. that has been an instinct dynamic -- an interesting dynamic. we have carcasses focused on the republican side of things. independent. ll caller: bause monday is a holiday and the weather is frightful, are people going to be showing up for that stuff or is it good to be muted? -- going to be muted? guest: they said the holiday date well ahead of time and the

ho was with folks off of work, that might encourage turnout. it remains to be seen with the weather. we said earlier it is pretty natural to expect a dip in expected turnout now that we have seen how cold it is going to be. ovit is hard to project any real statistics or have any specific candidate is going to be impacted. i think a couple of these candidates have been preparing for this day. other factors good to be in place. if you talk to officials, there is no plan b. this is a plan a lot of time and money has been invested into. it is going to go forward. host: we will be watching on monday. i want to thank you for joining us. that is galen bacharier, a reporter with the des moines

register. that is the time we have got for today's "washington journal." >> tonight, c-span begin iowa caucuses at 8:00 p.m. eastern. we will bring you analysis with reporters and caucus voters. they will cast votes monday, january 15 at 8:00 p.m. eastern and we'll bring you the results. watch our coverage on c-span networks. or online at c-span. org/campaign2024. >> be up up to date with book tv's podcast about costs with nonfiction book releases and best sellers and trends through insider interviews. c-spannow our free mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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