Haley and DeSantis battle for second place in Republican contest in Iowa

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

64% : Bill Kirk, a retired carpenter, said he made the 30-minute drive to see Haley, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, after watching her performance during a TV town hall on Monday night.
49% : In a CNN poll conducted with the University of New Hampshire, Trump was seven percentage points ahead of Haley, down from a 22-point lead back in November.
41% : Haley leads DeSantis in New Hampshire, the second state to vote in the Republican nominating contest on Jan. 23, by a wide margin in opinion polls, and is narrowing the gap with Trump.
39% : Trump, who opinion polls show is the favorite to win in Iowa and the overall nomination to take on President Joe Biden in November, attended a court hearing on Tuesday where his legal team argued that he is immune from federal criminal charges accusing him of trying to overturn the 2020 election.
36% : In Iowa, Alan Koslow, a self-described Democrat, said he planned to switch his registration to Republican on caucus night and vote for Haley as a way to stop Trump.
30% : Kirk voted for Trump twice but said he was tired of the drama.
28% : Haley focused on the mounting legal troubles facing Trump, who was some 1,000 miles (160 km)away in Washington for a court hearing.
26% : Haley had much of Iowa to herself earlier in the day: Trump was stuck in court, while DeSantis began Tuesday tending to his day job back home as the Florida governor.
23% : Haley chose mostly to attack Trump, while DeSantis, appearing at a Fox News town hall in Iowa on Tuesday night, unloaded mostly on Haley.
19% : "I think he is a walking dumpster fire, and I don't want any part of that," said Bantz, a 55-year-old nonprofit volunteer who voted for Trump when he was first elected in 2016 but not in 2020, when he lost to Biden.
18% : "If Donald Trump is the nominee, the election is going to be about legal issues, criminal trials, January 6.," DeSantis said.
17% : "I want to weaken Donald Trump, and I think if she has a strong showing in Iowa that would help her going into New Hampshire," he said, adding he would back Biden in November's election.
6% : Iowa (Reuters) -Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis made closing arguments on Tuesday in Iowa as they battle to become a clear alternative to frontrunner Donald Trump in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

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