For Republicans, the long road to the 2016 presidential election began in earnest on Saturday in Iowa when a group of potential candidates jockeyed for support among conservatives in the state that will hold the country's first nominating contest.

One message that emerged at the Iowa Freedom Summit, a day of back-to-back speeches by about eight potential Republican candidates, is that establishment names Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney have some work to do to gain support of grass-roots activists should they decide to run.

That view surfaced when New York developer and celebrity Donald Trump declared to the audience that Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, cannot be allowed to run a third time and that former Florida Gov. Bush is weighed down by concerns about his education and immigration policies. "You just can't have those two," Trump said.