Blizzard warning in Iowa slows campaigning as race comes to a close

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley canceled her town hall events in Iowa scheduled for Friday, citing what National Weather Service forecasters called “life-threatening winter weather.”

Ms. Haley’s in-person events will instead be turned into “telephone town halls.” But Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy, the wealthy entrepreneur, said they would for now go ahead with campaign events scheduled for Friday.

A Thursday evening forecast from the National Weather Service office in Des Moines said widespread heavy snow would begin Thursday and last through Friday evening, accompanied by wind gusts up to 45 miles per hour. The agency added that “rural travel may become impossible Friday afternoon through Friday evening through central Iowa.”

Mr. DeSantis has five campaign events planned in Iowa on Friday, starting with an early morning town hall where he will be joined by Gov. Kim Reynolds, who has endorsed his bid.

Mr Ramaswamy has also planned five events. He defied previous warnings of bad weather this week, declaring that “if you can’t handle the snow, you can’t handle Xi Jinping.”

The winter weather isn’t letting up as Caucus Day approaches on Monday. The National Weather Service said extreme wind chills are as low as 40 degrees below zero, would be present across Iowa on the night of the caucuses. Forecasters stressed that “this is life-threatening cold” and added: “Anyone caught outside will be in danger.”

Kellen Browning, Anjali Huynh And Nicholas Nehamas reporting contributed.