The Iowa cacuses are just days away, and while candidates for the Republican presidential nomination are making their final pitches to voters, the weather may have the final say.
Turnout is everything in any election. But with a caucus, people are required to be at a location at a specific time, magnifying any inconvenience — such as this weekend's snow, wind and frigid temperatures.
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"I definitely know I'm not in South Carolina anymore," Nikki Haley quipped.
"I'm really impressed so many people came out with the weather," Ron DeSantis told a group of his supporters.
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Political candidates aren't alone in marveling at the intense winter weather. Those who have called Iowa home for decades are also reacting.
"This is awful, absolutely awful," said Dennis Goldford, a political science professor at Drake University.
But even with the snow and subzero temperatures, the caucus must go on.
The annual tradition puts voters in a room and allows them to discuss who they collectively want to support for president.
"It's simply a place to start and give the rest of the country a sense of not what just casual observers think," Goldford said.
He adds that the weather could impact turnout this year.
"You've got to hope the baby sitter shows up, you've got to hope you don't have a flat tire, you've got to hope that you're not ill, and especially, and we see it right now, you certainly have to hope there's not a blizzard," he said.
The storm throws a wrench into a political landscape already worth watching.
"Donald Trump is running as a de facto incumbent," Goldford said of the Republican frontrunner. "He's not an incumbent, but in the minds of a lot of his supporters, he's essentially an incumbent."
NBC10 Boston is reporting from Iowa through Monday's caucuses. Stay tuned for more.
