仅仅一个多月直到初选开始本周末在爱荷华州竞选的共和党候选人瞄准了他们希望对竞选中的领先者、前总统唐纳德·特朗普最有效的论点之一:他的可当选性。

前南卡罗莱纳州州长妮基·黑利和佛罗里达州州长罗恩·德桑蒂斯都告诉艾奥瓦人，他们担心川普无法在大选中战胜总统乔·拜登，而选民希望做出最终选择，并从那些仍在竞选的人那里了解政策细节。

哈利对全州的人群说，“混乱跟随”特朗普，并指出一项新的调查等民意调查来自华尔街日报这表明她在与拜登的假想对决中表现得比他好。

“我们不能让一个国家陷入混乱，在一个着火的世界里，在这场混乱中幸存下来，”哈利在苏城中心多尔特大学的“信仰和家庭”论坛上对人群说。

“共和党在八次总统普选中输掉了最后七次。那没有什么值得骄傲的。我们应该想赢得大多数美国人的支持，”哈利补充道。“但我们要做到这一点的唯一途径是，如果我们有一个新的一代领导人，将消极和包袱抛在身后，并展望未来的问题。”

在同一场活动中，德桑蒂斯向记者讲述了他在他的州亲眼目睹的选举，并认为特朗普是吸引民主党选民的驱动力——这种模式可能会在明年的投票中重演。

“民主党人知道，拜登作为他们的提名人，他们有投票率问题，因为他没有鼓舞任何人。他没有激励任何人。他们需要的是，他们需要那种消极的党派偏见，他们可以说，“特朗普，特朗普，特朗普”，让人们出来。这是他们的公式，”德桑蒂斯说。

在德桑蒂斯花了大量时间的爱荷华州西部农村，许多选民表示他们同意，并认为关于特朗普当选的论点令人信服。

“这将只是一场小丑表演。诉讼和弹劾——就像第一次一样——而不是做任何事情，”来自苏中心的农民特里斯顿·戈尔登在共和党众议员兰迪·芬斯特拉主持的“信仰和家庭”论坛上听了候选人的发言后告诉美国广播公司新闻。

2023年12月2日，共和党总统候选人佛罗里达州州长罗恩·德桑蒂斯在爱荷华州牛顿市的雷迪多姆竞选集会上向客人发表讲话。

斯科特·奥尔森/盖蒂图片社

戈登耸了耸肩，叹了口气，像许多接受美国广播公司新闻采访的选民一样，他仍然表示，他认为特朗普将成为最终的共和党提名人，他担心这将影响该党在2024年的机会。

“我担心我们还不如把它交给乔·拜登，”他说。

特朗普在1月15日开始共和党初选的州党团会议之前，花了少得多的时间试图赢得艾奥瓦人。但今年的民调显示，他可能不需要这样做:尽管哈利、德桑蒂斯和其他反对者认为他不是最佳选择，但他在基层仍然非常受欢迎。

根据538的最新平均投票率在爱荷华州，特朗普领先约25个百分点，哈利和德桑蒂斯则远远落后于第二名。

虽然许多选民听起来对特朗普获得提名的想法听起来无可奈何，但其他人本周末表示，他们确实认为在投票开始前的最后几周，还有时间让其他人取得突破。

来自苏城的保罗·贝克说，他已经准备好为德桑蒂斯举行党团会议，并认为随着竞选的进行，州长的支持在全州范围内不断增长。

“他在佛罗里达州的领导非常成功，他实现了自己的保守原则。我们认同他的立场。我的妻子是一名教师，她非常支持他的冠状病毒肺炎反应和教育，”贝克说。

商人维韦克·拉马斯瓦米(Vivek Ramaswamy)尽管在该州度过了59天，并举行了150多场活动，但他在民调中一直停滞不前，周六他没有公布自己的数据。

“自由主义者、无党派人士、年轻人、大学校园里的人——这些人是我们带入这个过程的，他们不会接受民意调查，”他告诉ABC新闻。

与论坛上的其他候选人相比，拉马斯瓦米在多特校园的学生中尤其受欢迎。有一次，一队男学生运动员排着队和他合影，他甚至跳到地板上参加公开俯卧撑挑战，给记者和其他活动参与者一个非常直观的提醒，38岁的他是比赛中迄今为止最年轻的候选人。

拉马斯瓦米周六晚上在切诺基州的一次活动上发表讲话时，被问及特朗普对来自几个以穆斯林为主的国家的游客实施的有争议的移民禁令，该禁令被拜登政府撤销。

在回答记者的问题时，拉马斯瓦米说，他将按照同样的思路制定一些“潜在的更广泛的”措施，并将其与“保护家园”联系起来。

2023年12月9日，在爱荷华州党团会议之前，前联合国大使兼2024年总统候选人妮基·黑利在爱荷华州精神湖访问期间对爱荷华州居民发表讲话。

克里斯蒂安·蒙特罗萨/法新社

与此同时，海莉周六晚上告诉选民，她将推动全国各地投票权法律的重大变化，特别是消除邮寄投票。自新冠肺炎疫情以来，邮寄选票变得更加普遍，尽管川普和其他人毫无根据地声称，邮寄选票导致了广泛的欺诈和滥用。

“永远不应该有一个州在选举日不给我们选举结果。下一件事是我们必须停止邮寄选票，”哈利在清澈湖的市政厅活动上说。

取消邮寄投票可能会对紫色州甚至红色州产生巨大影响，包括亚利桑那州、科罗拉多州和犹他州，这些州的选民已经习惯了这种做法。

本周末，德桑蒂斯就选民关心的另一个热门话题——医疗保健——接受了记者的提问。

在最近表示他将寻求一个“超越奥巴马医改”的计划后，他澄清说，作为总统，他实际上不会废除整个平价医疗法案，通常被称为奥巴马医改。该法律越来越受欢迎，为数百万美国人提供了医疗保险。

但德桑蒂斯回避了关于他是否会努力废除所有这一切的问题，他只告诉记者，他将“致力于推出一个好的计划”，而“奥巴马医改失败了。”在…里公共广播公司的采访本周末，他表示将保留该法律的一些条款，如保护已有疾病的人不被拒绝覆盖-这是该立法的关键改革之一。

“但我们必须进行改革，降低成本，”他还告诉PBS。

他接着指责保险公司和制药公司与政府合作，“形成了一个铁三角，病人和医生都在公共汽车的后面，这不再是以病人为中心的护理了。”

As Trump's rivals push to persuade Iowans, DeSantis warns that he would fire up Democrats

With just over a monthuntil primary voting begins, Republican candidates campaigning in Iowa this weekend zeroed in on what they hope is one of their most effective arguments against the front-runner in the race, former President Donald Trump: his electability.

Both former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told Iowans that they worry Trump cannot win in a general election against President Joe Biden while voters, looking to make their final choices, drilled down on policy specifics from those still in the race.

Speaking to crowds across the state, Haley said that "chaos follows" Trump and pointed to polls like a new surveyfrom The Wall Street Journalthat showed her faring better than him in a hypothetical matchup against Biden.

"We can't have a country in disarray, in a world on fire, and survive this chaos," Haley told the crowd at a "faith and family" forum at Dordt University in Sioux Center.

"Republicans have lost the last seven out of eight popular votes for president. That is nothing to be proud of. We should want to win the majority of Americans," Haley added. "But the only way we're going to do that is if we have a new generational leader that leaves the negativity and the baggage behind and looks forward to the problems ahead."

Speaking to reporters at the same event, Desantis recounted elections he'd witnessed firsthand in his state and argued Trump was a driving force for bringing out Democratic voters -- a pattern that could repeat with him on the ballot next year.

"Democrats know they have a turnout problem with Biden as their nominee because he's not invigorating anybody. He's not inspiring anybody. What they need is, they need that negative partisanship that they can say, 'Trump, Trump, Trump' and get people to come out. That's been their formula," DeSantis said.

In rural western Iowa, where DeSantis has spent considerable time, many voters said they agreed and found the arguments about Trump's electability convincing.

"It will just be a clown show. Lawsuits and impeachments -- just like it was the first time -- instead of getting anything done," Tristen Golden, a farmer from Sioux Center, told ABC News after listening to candidates at the "faith and family" forum, hosted by Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra.

With a shrug and a sigh, Golden, like many voters who spoke with ABC News, still said he thought Trump would be the eventual Republican Party nominee and he worried that would hurt the party's chances in 2024.

"I worry we might as well hand it to Joe Biden," he said.

Trump has spent much less time trying to win over individual Iowans ahead of the state's caucuses on Jan. 15, which begin the Republican primary. But polling has showed all year that he may not need to: Despite Haley, DeSantis and other opponents arguing he's not the best choice, he remains hugely popular with the base.

According to 538'slatest polling averages, Trump is leading in Iowa by about 25 points, with Haley and DeSantis jockeying for a distant second.

While many voters sounded resigned to the idea of a Trump nomination, others said this weekend that they did think there was time for someone else to breakthrough in the final weeks before voting begins.

Paul Baker from Sioux City said he was ready to caucus for DeSantis and thinks support for the governor has been growing across the state as the field winnows.

"His leadership in Florida was very successful and he delivered on his conservative principles. We identify with his positions. My wife's a teacher and she is very supportive of his COVID response and education," Baker said.

Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, who has been stagnating in the polls despite spending 59 days in the state and holding more than 150 events, brushed off his numbers on Saturday.

"Libertarians, independents, young people, people on college campuses -- those are people we're bringing into the process that don't get polled," he told ABC News.

Ramaswamy was notably popular with the students on Dordt's campus compared with other candidates at the forum. At one point a line of male student athletes formed to take pictures with him, and he even hit the floor to participate in a public pushup challenge, giving reporters and other event attendees a very visual reminder that at 38 he is by far the youngest candidate in the race.

Speaking at an event across the state in Cherokee on Saturday night, Ramaswamy was asked about Trump's controversial immigration ban on travelers from several predominately Muslim nations, which was revoked by the Biden administration.

In answering the question from reporters, Ramaswamy said he would look to enact something "potentially more expansive" along the same lines and linked it to "protecting the homeland."

Meanwhile, Haley told voters on Saturday evening that she would push for dramatic changes to voting rights laws across the country, specifically eliminating mail-in voting. Mail ballots have become much more widespread since the COVID-19 pandemic even as Trump and others make baseless claims that they lead to widespread fraud and abuse.

"There should never be a state that doesn't give us election results on Election Day. The next thing is we have to stop the mail out ballots," Haley said at a town hall event in Clear Lake.

Eliminating mail-in voting could have huge implications for purple and even red states, including Arizona, Colorado and Utah, where voters have gotten used to the practice.

DeSantis faced questions from reporters this weekend on another hot topic among voters: health care.

After recently saying that he would look for a plan to "transcend Obamacare," he clarified that as president he would not actually work to repeal the entire Affordable Care Act, often referred to as Obamacare. The law has become increasingly popular and provides health insurance for millions of Americans.

But DeSantis dodged questions about whether he would fight to try to scrap all of it , telling reporters only that he would be "working on unveiling a good program" and "Obamacare failed." Inan interview with PBSthis weekend, he said would keep some provisions of the law, like protecting people with preexisting conditions from being denied coverage -- one of the legislation's key reforms.

"But we have got to have a reform that is going to lower costs," he also told PBS.

He went on to accuse insurance and pharmaceutical companies of working with the government in "an iron triangle where the patient and the doctor are at the back of the bus, and it's not about patient-centered care anymore."