Sanders also pointed to the huge gains his campaign has made in Iowa, where he is now in a tight race with Clinton months after starting “50 or 60 points behind” in early polls.
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The supporters of former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who has only 3 percent support, may hold the razor-thin balance of power in the epic Democrat clash.
Sanders holds an edge across almost all demographic groups measured in the poll, though Clinton fares better among women than men, and she splits voters age 65 or older with Sanders about evenly, while trailing Sanders by a significant margin among younger voters.
With Iowans notorious for making up their minds in the final days before the caucuses, or even in the meetings themselves, candidates trawled for votes at more than 25 formal events Sunday and saturated television talk shows. But Des Moines Register political reporter Jennifer Jacobs pointed out that Rubio’s support declined on each day of polling not a good sign.
News Talk Florida expects that the debate moderators would be Meet the Press host Chuck Todd and MSNBC host Rachel Maddow.
The liberal newspaper’s picks come just two days before voters in Iowa cast ballots in the first nominating contest of the 2016 presidential election season.
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.
In Iowa City, Cruz urged about 500 supporters crammed into a building at the county fairgrounds to turn out for the caucuses if they wanted to help him break the cycle of politics as usual in Washington. Trump says he wants people’s health care “taken care of” but not with the current program.
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”. I am so against Obamacare. “I wanted to create a sign that you could look at and go ‘oh I’m against Trump (but) that’s a great sign.’ Or ‘oh, I’m for Trump, he’s saying you’re fired, that’s awesome'”. “I don’t know what the impact is”. “We can’t let them die on the sidewalks of NY or the sidewalks of Iowa or anywhere else”, Trump said.
“The drill-down shows, if anything, stronger alignment with Cruz than Trump, except for the horse race”, said J. Ann Selzer, the pollster for the Iowa Poll.
By contrast, Cruz told Fox News, “We’re not finding Trump’s troops on the ground”. “Let me tell you proudly, I have raised zero dollars”.
“I get that it is unpleasant to have your record subject to scrutiny – to be potentially criticized – but this is a job interview”.
Cruz has criss-crossed Iowa, Jeb Bush has 30 paid staffers for an aggressive campaign, while Marco Rubio has spent more money on TV than any other candidate.
He explained, “I can grow the conservative movement”.
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All the contenders are begging their backers to make it to the caucuses and are handicapping their prospects. Obama’s first secretary of state, however, deflected a question about whether she feels she has the president’s support.
