For Republicans, meanwhile, the warm feelings toward the top candidates are not universal: 50% have a positive view of Trump, 65% of Cruz, 70% for Rubio and 72% for Carson.
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This may reflect their wish for Sanders to defeat Clinton, who is extremely unpopular with Republicans, or more interest in the polls, which have generally shown a close race in Iowa and a large Sanders lead in New Hampshire. He’ll jet off to New Hampshire following the caucus tomorrow night. Sanders has 57 percent support over Clinton’s 37 percent.
On Monday, the race for the presidential nominations begins in earnest.
Earlier, on ABC News, he urged his young supporters to caucus Monday.
Although the Iowa Caucus is not always the determining factor in who will be the country’s next president, a strong showing from Trump in Iowa could help ensure his chances of becoming the Republican nominee.
In the quadrennial election cycle, the two parties officially nominate their respective candidate for presidency at their national conventions, which will be convened in the summer before the Election Day in November.
Sanders, a Vermont senator, did the same.
Trump, who has never sat through a nerve-wracking night of vote counting, was not predicting victory in Iowa in interviews and stump speeches.
Sen. Marco Rubio, in third place in the most recent poll, sent a toned-down version of a similar mailer to some voters, Time magazine reported. There’s “no such thing as an election violation related to frequency of voting”, he said, and insinuating otherwise is “not in keeping in the spirit of the Iowa caucuses”.
In Marshalltown, Mr Sanders called the race basically a toss-up.
The thousands of students who fill his rallies could produce an upset, if they show up to caucus.
The central mystery about Trump’s campaign in Iowa has been whether the real estate mogul and former reality TV star can convert voter enthusiasm for his candidacy into turnout at the caucuses.
“The conservative fervor has hit because people have been waiting for a conservative leader”, said Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
The Clinton team has yet to release January numbers.
Cruz also has an ad that finishes with a picture of Rubio made to look like a famous poster from Obama’s 2008 campaign that says: “Rubio, the Republican Obama”.
Cruz said he was praying for his rivals as he worshiped at an evangelical mega-church in West Des Moines, telling reporters he had prayed that “God’s blessing and peace and love be upon them”. Still, 57 percent of Republican primary voters in New Hampshire believe Trump will be the nominee, according to the poll.
CRUZ: “For someone who owes of hundreds of millions of dollars if not billions of dollars, to attack Heidi and me because we put our life savings into running for Senate, and a statement that the loans weren’t disclosed, he knows that’s flat-out false”.
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Rubio said, in an appearance on the same program immediately following Cruz (the two hugged, according to moderator Chuck Todd, as they crossed paths) that he was now advocating “securing the border” before any reform.
