Supporters listen to Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders during a campaign event at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa. “He’s really smart. He knows everything about everything, I think”. “I wanted to do whatever I could”. He hammered the senator for a recent mailer that suggests to recipients that they have committed a “Voting Violation” by not being reliable caucus participants in the past.
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Candidates are anxious that the incoming storm could prevent their voters turning out earlier in the evening.
The Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics poll of 602 likely Democratic Iowa caucus-goers showed Clinton had 45 percent to Sanders’ 42 percent, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent, meaning the two candidates were statistically tied. Yet some Republican leaders worry that if Trump or Cruz pull off a big victory in Iowa, it would be hard to slow their momentum. Marco Rubio at 15 percent. And what will the numbers mean?
So we will have winners Monday night? The Sanders and Clinton campaigns have an an army of Iowans and out-of-staters to make sure their supporters are ready to caucus.
Unlike Cruz, who is focused on turning out low-propensity GOP voters, Rubio speaks openly about the need to win over additional voters to the GOP cause-a central component of his stump speech in the final days of campaigning. The self-described democratic socialist’s message that the USA economy is “rigged” against the middle class has appeared to resonate with an electorate that has grown frustrated with Washington and given rise to insurgent candidates like Sanders and Trump. And the enthusiasm gap favors Sanders, who has excited Democrats with his calls to break up the big banks and make college and health care free. Both are seeking to get nontraditional participants out. “Tomorrow you must caucus in my opinion, respectfully, for someone who gives us a chance to win, not just the nomination, not just someone who has the chance to win the nomination”.
Cruz took to the airwaves to challenge the conservative credentials of Rubio, the Floridian running third in Iowa, according to the polls. “Sanders talks about how a high turnout is better, he is exactly right about that”.
The campaign has taken every measure possible to ensure people can get their, D’Alessandro said. “We are going to reach millions of people who aspire to a better future and I am going to be able to say to them, I grew up the way you are now”. “One of the reasons that I’ll win and, I think, none of the other guys will win is because I’m going to get states that they’ll never get”, he told CBS’ “Face the Nation,” citing Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Florida, along with strong hopes for NY and Virginia.
Cruz has been rushing to visit all of the state’s 99 counties and has brought in hundreds of out of state volunteers to stay at former college dorms he has dubbed “Camp Cruz”.
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But the Iowa contest isn’t just your typical ballot-box election. “Are you afraid of snow?” There’s a winter storm predicted to start Tuesday, but it could hit parts of Iowa on Monday night, and that could depress turnout.
