2024's first act: Ramaswamy up, Pence down in Iowa

A half-dozen GOP presidential contenders not named Donald Trump showed up at a convention center in Des Moines, Iowa on Friday for their first big job interviews, and two things quickly became clear.

Driving the news: The first: After ousted Fox News host Tucker Carlson questioned the contenders before about 2,000 evangelical Christians, the crowd's favorites were Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy — but not former Vice President Mike Pence.

The second: A healthy chunk of the crowd, though, appeared to like Trump most of all — and seemed to be shopping for a No. 2 choice, just in case.

Why it matters: The Iowa caucuses, likely the first contests in the GOP primary season, are six months away. But this weekend's crush of events across the state is an early benchmark — a snapshot of who's up and who's down, at least for now.

But, but, but: It's a long campaign, and Iowa isn't everything.