Presidential candidates make their final pitches ahead of Caucus Day. What they say:

Presidential candidates and caucusgoers alike braved frigid temperatures and blowing snow during a last-minute campaign blitz over the final weekend ahead of the Iowa Caucuses.

A blizzard warning from Friday through Saturday night, which brought with it “life-threatening winter weather,” according to the National Weather Service, forced several candidates to scrap in-person events and get creative with their efforts at reaching Iowa caucusgoers.

Former President Donald Trump canceled three out of four of his planned weekend events, holding virtual events in their place and appearing at just one in-person rally in Indianola on Sunday where he urged Iowans to show up no matter what.

More: How the Iowa Caucuses work, who can caucus and where to caucus

"You can't sit home," Trump said. "If you're sick as a dog ... even if you vote and then pass away, it's worth it."

Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley canceled three events Friday and one on Sunday, replacing them with telephone town halls where she took questions from Iowans.

And Never Back Down, the super PAC supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, canceled half a dozen events Friday, Saturday and Sunday. But DeSantis was still on the trail this weekend, making an impromptu stop at his Urbandale campaign office during the blizzard and hosting a packed crowd at the West Des Moines Never Back Down office as the temperatures plummeted.

Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy held one event virtually, but largely ignored the Iowa Department of Transportation’s warnings that travel was not advised for much of the state and continued holding in-person events.

“George Washington braved the weather to cross the Delaware,” Ramaswamy posted on social media Saturday. “Another snow day in Iowa, another day of events for us.”

Hecklers also braved the cold. A comedian tried to hand DeSantis a “participation trophy” in Atlantic on Saturday, while climate protesters interrupted DeSantis, Trump and Ramaswamy events over the course of the weekend.

More: Iowa caucus night: Where to find results, follow live coverage

The final campaign sprint comes ahead of Monday night’s first-in-the-nation caucuses, with high stakes for all the GOP candidates.

The final Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll, released Saturday, shows Trump with a commanding lead as the top choice of 48% of likely Republican caucusgoers, while Haley pulls past DeSantis for the first time to take second place with 20%. DeSantis is in third place with 16% support.

Candidates urge supporters to show up on Monday night

The weekend blizzard and subzero temperatures provided a preview of caucus night, which is set to be the coldest Iowa Caucus in history.

The National Weather Service is forecasting a high near minus 5 degrees during the day, with a low dropping to minus 11 to minus 15 degrees Monday night. Wind chill could make it feel up to minus 45 degrees.

Throughout the weekend, candidates emphasized how important it is for their supporters to turn out and make themselves heard.

“Monday is going to be cold. Really cold,” Haley told an audience Saturday morning. “But what I’m asking you is if you will take the time to not just go to the polls, take people with you. Wear layers because you might be standing in a line.”

DeSantis told supporters over the weekend that “they can throw a blizzard at us and we are gonna fight. They can throw wind chill at us and we are gonna fight.”

“Monday is going to be very, very cold,” DeSantis said Thursday night in Ames. “And even though people here are used to cold weather, it's going to be maybe a record for an Iowa Caucus. So, I'm asking you to go out there. I'm asking you to brave the elements. I'm asking you to support me and if you can trudge through some really cold weather for a few hours, you’ll launch me to be able to serve you as president for the next eight years and turn this country around.”

Trump told supporters Sunday at Simpson College in Indianola to “dress warmly tomorrow night.”

Trump also tempered his concerns about turnout in the weather, with snow mostly passed but wind chills expecting to result in record-low temperatures for a caucus night.

"We seem to have a lot of good enthusiasm," Trump said. "I don't know, maybe the weather is not going to be that big a deal."

Trump, Haley, DeSantis set expectations in the wake of final Iowa Poll

Saturday’s poll results provided a new wrinkle for candidates as they sought to adjust the public’s expectations about how they will perform on caucus night.

“I think a lot of the Iowans, they just roll their eyes at these polls. I mean, the idea that you’re gonna know in a caucus with negative-20-degree temperatures what that electorate’s gonna look like, you just can’t do it,” DeSantis said. “So it’s basically shooting into the wind.”

DeSantis and his endorsers have waved away poll results for months, telling crowds in Iowa that polls are part of a “media narrative” that Trump is unbeatable.

DeSantis’ top supporters, including Gov. Kim Reynolds, who endorsed him in November, spent the weekend predicting DeSantis would defy expectations and win the caucuses on Monday night.

“I can tell you without hesitation, with the energy, the motivation, just what we're seeing as we travel the state: This guy is going to be the winner of the Iowa Caucus on Monday night,” Reynolds told a crowd at a Never Back Down office in West Des Moines on Saturday. “So fire up, keep this energy, we can't let down. It is game day. We got to carry it across the finish line, leave it all on the field.”

The record margin of victory in a contested Republican caucus is Bob Dole’s 12-point win in 1996.

Trump told reporters Sunday that the press and analysts seem to expect him to eclipse 50% support on caucus night, saying, “there seems to be something about 50, I don’t know if we break 50.”

"I think they're doing it so that they can set a high expectation," Trump said. "So if we end with 49%, which would be about 25 points bigger than anyone else has ever gotten, they can say 'it was a failure.'"

Haley has consistently said she’s looking for a “strong” finish in Iowa. On Sunday, she touted that she moved up four points in the Iowa Poll, while Trump and DeSantis dropped three points each.

“There are no foregone conclusions,” Haley said at a virtual event Sunday, held after canceling an in-person event in Dubuque. “We’re already moving up in the polls. Everybody else is moving down. We see the surge.”

More: Where do I caucus? How to find Republican caucus locations, what to bring to register

Candidates give their closing pitches to Iowans

The candidates also honed their final pitches to Iowans, urging them to make it a strong night.

“All the media pundits love to talk about how they know what’s going to happen in Iowa,” Haley told a crowd in Ankeny on Thursday. “You have to get tired of that, right?”

Haley said she’s relying on caucusgoers to come to the right decision.

“You’re still making up your minds, you’re still figuring out where you want to go,” she said. “But what I do know is I trust you. I trust that you did your homework. I trust that you know where you want the country to go.”

DeSantis has said repeatedly that Trump is “running for his issues,” while DeSantis is “running for your issues and your family's issues.”

“You're never going to have an election that is going to be as meaningful as this one is going to be,” DeSantis said Saturday in West Des Moines. “So take advantage of that. It's going to be cold. It's not going to be pleasant. But if you're willing to go out there and you're willing to fight for me ... then as president, I'll be fighting for you for the next eight years, every single day.”

Texas businessman and pastor Ryan Binkley held four events around Iowa over the weekend.

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson made appearances in Des Moines and Ames, where he said Republicans have to make the case that the country needs to go in a different direction than Trump.

“One person in America who really likes the poll numbers where they see Donald Trump 28 points ahead is Joe Biden,” Hutchinson said. “He's sitting there loving it because that's the one chance he has to win.”

More: Where the candidates stand on the issues

What do Iowans think?

Nancy Wildanger said she and her husband have been attending events, including those held by Haley and DeSantis, for weeks as they prepared to pick a candidate to caucus for.

“He was totally a Nikki. I was totally undecided,” she said. “Now I’m for Nikki.”

Wildanger, a resident of Iowa City, said she believes Haley is the best candidate in this year’s election.

“I don’t think she backs down,” Wildanger said. “She’s also really smart. I just think she’ll have a better chance of winning over Trump.”

Ken and Bonnie May, of Slater, said that they're convinced that Hutchinson is the right choice to be the nominee. Ken said he will caucus for Hutchinson on Monday.

“I think he's really authentic and down to earth. He's really intelligent. You can ask him anything, and he just seemed to answer honestly," Ken May said. “This to me is an opportunity to vote for somebody that I think could be really good.”

Lori Tiangco of Des Moines said she was drawn to DeSantis because of his “commitment to moving our country forward.”

“He has followed through on everything he said he was going to do,” she said. “If he said it, he’s done it.”

Tiangco said she doesn’t care what the polls say. She believes DeSantis will do “amazing” on Monday night.

“It’s going to be the people getting out, going to their caucus location and casting their votes that’s going to make the difference,” she said.

Haley said Iowans have something to be excited about once the caucuses are over.

“Just think, all the TV commercials will go away,” she said. “All the mail, all the text messages. I know you are ready to see this — all the media — I know you’re ready to see everybody go. But you get it. You get the fact that it all starts with you. You set the tone for the country. It’s a pretty cool thing when you think about the fact that you get to set the tone for where you want our country to go.”

Katie Akin, Galen Bacharier, Virginia Barreda, Nixson Benítez, Victoria Reyna-Rodriguez, David Jackson, Savannah Kuchar and Marina Pitofsky contributed to this story.

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Presidential candidates make final pitches in Iowa ahead of Caucus Day