After months of campaigning and more than $200 million spent on advertising, the race for supremacy in Iowa is close in both parties. The Iowa Poll, published by The Des Moines Register and Bloomberg, found former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with 45 percent support to Sanders’ 42 percent. ABC News will be streaming coverage from Iowa all day.
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Want more? You can download NPR’s Iowa briefing book here. ABC News will also provide rolling updates from Iowa below:How Does a Caucus Work? .
With tables loaded with bottles of soda and take out burritos, and “Feel the Bern” signs everywhere in sight, volunteers gathered at Sanders’ Des Moines headquarters Saturday to make phone calls and knock on doors before the leadoff Iowa caucuses. The weirdest Iowa Caucus locationsWatching Monday: What to look for in the 2016 Iowa caucuses At last, it’s caucus day in Iowa.
The higher the turnout, the better the outcomes could be for businessman Donald Trump on the Republican side and Vermont Sen. “Wouldn’t that be bad if I lost in Iowa, won everywhere else?” he recently told supporters.
Monday’s contest will also offer the first hard evidence of whether Trump can turn the legion of fans drawn to his plainspoken populism into voters.
And will self-declared Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders convert the excitement about his political revolution into enough votes to upset Clinton’s second shot at history? On Sunday, Dreyfuss, who once played a Republican senator vying for the White House in “The American President”, was spotted at a Carly Fiorina event, too. Ted Cruz, a “liar”, while Cruz questioned his opponent’s record on abortion and religious liberty. So even if Sanders pulls off a big turnout, that caucus quirk could be a strike against him. Trump, again, took his signature subtle approach when it came to the challenge posed by the weather: “You’re from Iowa, are you afraid of snow?” he asked of his supporters last weekend. A snowfall forecast to start Monday night appeared more likely to hinder the hopefuls in their rush out of Iowa than the voters.
We know that he plans show up at several caucuses around the state Monday – and even try to speak, though candidates aren’t typically allowed to do that. Ohio Gov. John Kasich bailed from Iowa earlier, long seeing more promise for his longshot campaign back East. That meant many Iowa students supporting Obama were dispersed across the state in different precincts because they were still at home on winter break. In presidential nominating contests, it’s sometimes said that there are three tickets out of Iowa – just win one to keep going.
Making his closing argument to voters in Iowa City where he campaigned with conservative broadcaster Glenn Beck and Robertson of A&E’s “Duck Dynasty”, Cruz urged voters to ignore the media surrounding the presidential race and get out to caucus on Monday night. Some could pivot quickly and throw their support behind another candidate.
The Republican field includes two previous Iowa winners who had little apparent success in this Iowa campaign – Mike Huckabee (2008) and Rick Santorum (2012) – and soon may be facing the end of the road.
To assuage doubts about his faith during his final push, Trump has been campaigning with evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr., who has served as a critical character witness for Trump by praising his private generosity and stating that Trump reminds him of his father, famed televangelist Jerry Falwell. Both merit deeply positive favorability ratings from the pool of likely participants, 81% had a favorable view of Clinton, 82% Sanders, and about 7 in 10 say they would be enthusiastic about either candidate should they become the party’s nominee.
New CNN Poll of Polls averages in New Hampshire find Sanders well ahead of Clinton in the first primary state of the 2016 nomination race, 55% to 37%. Both Trump and Sanders have been trying to expand the universe of Iowa voters by bringing in people who have never caucused before. If the number of people in any group is less than 15 percent of the total, they can either choose not to participate or join another candidate group.
Those numbers are awarded proportionately, based on statewide and congressional district voting, as Iowa Democrats determine their 44 delegates to the national convention.
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(AP Photo/Evan Vucci). Democratic presidential candidate Sen.
