Evening Report — GOP rivals storm Iowa

©  AP Photo/Evan Vucci/Mark Pynes/The Patriot-News via AP/Charles Krupa

Republican presidential candidates are kicking off the new year with a series of events in Iowa ahead of the state’s first-in-the-nation nominating contest on Jan. 15.

Frontrunner former President Trump holds a 33.6 percent lead over his nearest opponent in Iowa, according to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ Polling Average. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is second, with 18 percent of the vote, followed by former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley at 17.1 percent of voter support.

Trump is holding rallies in the Hawkeye State the next two weekends.

DeSantis and Haley will be at Des Moines’s Grand View University for back-to-back town halls hosted by CNN on Thursday.

DeSantis has focused much of his resources on the state and garnered Gov. Kim Reynolds‘s (R) endorsement.

Haley is spending part of her week in New Hampshire, where she has high hopes amid a polling bump and Gov. Chris Sununu‘s (R) backing.

CNN announced Tuesday that DeSantis, Haley and Trump qualified for its Jan. 10 debate in Iowa. Trump, who has skipped all of the GOP debates this cycle, is slated to instead participate in a Fox News town hall that night.

Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who qualified for previous Republican National Committee debates but not CNN’s upcoming event, said he’ll participate in a show with conservative media personality Tim Pool in Des Moines the night of the debate.

Ramaswamy has a full schedule of his campaign’s upcoming Iowa town halls and rallies.

• Lebanese news channels reported that Israel killed senior Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in a bombing in Beirut.
  
  

• Steve Scalise (La.), the chamber’s second-ranking Republican, endorsed former President Trump in the 2024 GOP primary.
  
  

• Snoop Dogg will be reporting from the summer Olympics in Paris for NBC.

© Mattie Neretin

Harvard University President Claudine Gay resigned Tuesday after six months at the school’s helm. The resignation comes on the heels of Gay’s controversial testimony at a House hearing on antisemitism last month, as well as plagiarism allegations.

Gay said, “it has become clear that it is in the best interests of Harvard for me to resign so that our community can navigate this moment of extraordinary challenge with a focus on the institution rather than any individual.”

Several Republican lawmakers celebrated the news.

Jury selection began Tuesday in the New York trial of National Rifle Association (NRA) executive Wayne LaPierre, who faces allegations of tax fraud. Learn about state Attorney General Letitia James‘s (D) lawsuit and the context surrounding the trial here.

© Tierney L. Cross

The Hill’s Julia Mueller looks at two Democratic candidates hoping to increase the House’s Gen Z contingent, which is currently a party of one: Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.).

A survey of Israelis showed 15 percent want Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stay in his position after the war between Israel and Hamas.

The poll, conducted by the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute, found 23 percent supporting emergency unity government member Benny Gantz for prime minister. 

“Press: It means what it says: Trump is not eligible”

“Matthews: The big ruse: Democrats now claim to be ‘values voters'”

13 days until the Iowa GOP presidential caucuses.

17 days until the deadline to fund some government agencies.

Thursday: CNN town halls with Ron DeSantis (9 p.m. ET) and Nikki Haley (10 p.m. ET).

You’re all caught up! Stay with TheHill.com for the latest and recommend this newsletter to others: TheHill.com/Evening. See you tomorrow!