Candidates are blitzing Iowa on a frenetic last full day of campaigning before the first-in-the-nation state casts its verdict on a wild presidential race. Clinton and Sanders are separated by only 3 percentage points, within the margin of error, on the Democratic side.
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Donald Trump has a five-point lead on Texas Sen. The Republican National Committee tried to make the case last week that anything but a “resounding” win for Clinton is a loss. “I am saying that we are right now in Iowa in a very, very close election”.
Leading US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Democratic contender Bernie Sanders are leading their parties in New Hampshire, a new poll shows.
First, just almost half of likely Republican caucus-goers have a favorable opinion of Trump, while 70 percent like Rubio and 65 percent like Cruz (it being possible to like more than one candidate).
Rubio’s challenge of course is compounded by the fact that his support is not as strong as that of either Trump or Cruz. But consider this, too: Out-of-state students who are in Iowa for classes, rather than back home on break, can also caucus Monday. It’s a test of whether the celebrity businessman and political newcomer will be able to transform his record crowds into caucus-goers willing to courageous the…
Republican Secretary of State Paul Pate said in a statement that Cruz’s mailers, which has the words “official public record” printed in red at the top, “misrepresents the role of my office, and worse, misrepresents Iowa election law”.
At his speech, he pointed out that although she led the latest Des Moines Register/Bloomberg poll, he is just three points behind, compared to 41 points eight months ago.
Clinton emphasized the issue of gun regulations at a rally at Iowa State University in Ames, where she was joined by former Rep, Gabby Giffords, who was severely wounded in a mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona, and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly. “If Bernie Sanders had momentum headed into the final month, the race now is static and essentially tied”. Or will Trump’s tirades against Muslims, Mexicans and his rivals turn off voters keen to select a nominee who can beat a Democrat in the fall and is qualified to serve as commander-in-chief?
More than 40 years of the Iowa caucuses have proved that the victor isn’t always the victor.
The caucuses will not decide the nomination – there are only a tiny fraction of the required delegates at stake – but they are likely to winnow down the GOP field and set expectations for the bigger state primaries that lay ahead. Clinton asked. “When you go to caucus Monday night please think of this”. Ted Cruz relying on a strong get-out-the-vote operation among the key bloc of evangelical voters to pull out a victory. “Wouldn’t that be bad if I lost in Iowa, won everywhere else?” he recently told supporters. But the big question is how many of those first-time Trump and Sanders voters will actually turnout?
Sanders has aggressively rebutted Clinton’s questions about his electability, repeatedly touting that he fares better in some polls against Republican presidential candidates like Trump in hypothetical head-to-head matchups.
Similar fliers were also mailed out during the 2012 presidential race to encourage potential voters to vote for Barack Obama, according to the Independent-Journal Review. “Are you afraid of snow?”
The weather could also affect how soon the candidates can get out of Iowa for their next date with voters: New Hampshire. There’s a winter storm predicted to start on Tuesday but it could hit parts of Iowa Monday night and that could depress turnout.
But all that matters is whether voters believe the candidates’ plans can fly – or whether that factors into their vote at all. Marco Rubio, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie – hasn’t put any of them in position to win Iowa or New Hampshire.
On the Republican side, the Iowa caucuses will prove even more decisive.
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Enrique Peña, another Colombian-American, said Rubio won him over after he met with Latino community leaders in Des Moines. Former Sen. Rick Santorum and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, for example, completed the so-called undercard debate for candidates at the bottom of preference polls and then headed straight for Trump’s renegade rally a few miles away. The Republican establishment makes the same argument about Trump’s proposals to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border or block all Muslims from entering the U.S.as a way to combat terrorism.
