AMNA NAWAZ: The race for the 2024 GOP nomination is heating up.

One politician opted out today, but three others are waiting in the wings.

As Laura Barron-Lopez reports, most of the contenders were making the rounds in Iowa this weekend.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: One potential Republican candidate sitting out.

GOV.

CHRIS SUNUNU (R-NH): I have made the decision not to run for president on the Republican ticket in 2024.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Chris Sununu, a fierce Trump critic and the governor of first-in-the-nation primary state New Hampshire, choosing not to run against the former president.

GOV.

CHRIS SUNUNU: If you're not talking in resonance against the candidate who's right now winning by 20 or 30 points, then you're just potentially auditioning to be on his team.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: For the GOP hopefuls this weekend, an Iowa tradition, Senator Joni Ernst's annual Roast and Ride fund-raiser, one of the first 2024 cattle calls, where nearly all the Republican candidates made their case to early state voters.

Former Vice President Mike Pence teasing his official campaign launch set for later this week.

MIKE PENCE, Former Vice President of the United States: I don't have anything to announce today, but I can tell you, when I have got time to announce, come this Wednesday, I'm announcing in Iowa.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Noticeably absent, current poll leader Donald Trump.

Other candidates like former U.N.

Ambassador Nikki Haley, took aim at the former president, though not by name.

NIKKI HALEY (R), Presidential Candidate: It's time for a new generational leader.

We have got to leave the baggage and the negativity behind.

We have got a country to say.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: A line she repeated during a CNN town hall last night, as she also attacked Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for spending taxpayer dollars fighting Disney.

NIKKI HALEY: All this vendetta stuff, we have been down that road again.

We can't go down that.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Back in Iowa Saturday, DeSantis said the GOP needs to nominate someone who can win a general election.

GOV.

RON DESANTIS (R-FL), Presidential Candidate: We need to dispense with the culture of losing that has beset the Republican Party in recent years.

Iowa shows it can be done.

Florida shows it can be done.

We had red waves in 2022, the rest of the country not so much.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: And former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, a Trump detractor, instead directed his ire to the current president.

FMR.

GOV.

ASA HUTCHINSON (R-AR), Presidential Candidate: I'm running for president because Joe Biden's policy are the wrong direction for America.

People ask me, what would you do on your first day in office?

I will sign an executive order reversing Biden's executive orders.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: He was not alone.

South Carolina Senator Tim Scott pitched himself as the best candidate to take on Democrats.

SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-SC), Presidential Candidate: I scare the dickens out of the radical left and Joe Biden.

The proof of my life destroys their lies.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: For nearly two hours, eight GOP hopefuls took the stage.

Though one of the first big multi candidate events, it will hardly be the last.

All the candidates will likely be frequent fliers to the Hawkeye State, as they try to gain support and donors to qualify for the first Republican primary debate in August.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Laura Barron-Lopez.