The battle for the votes of the faith community has focused on Ted Cruz, who has tried to highlight the issue in order to drive Iowans away from Trump. That’s good news for Trump, but experts agree if he pulls of a win it will throw Iowa politics on its side. Why? But through all the controversies, Trump has only gotten stronger, to the point where he’s the favorite to win the GOP nod. “I want to keep making the case until the caucuses are over because I feel so strongly we can’t afford to make a mistake”, she said at a rally, according to the Times.
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Hillary Clinton is stopping by a campaign office in south Des Moines to rally her troops ahead of Monday night’s Iowa caucuses.
Given the diverse makeup of the US electorate, the Hawkeye State is not exactly representative of Americans as a whole (Iowa’s population is over 90% white, and over half of all Iowans are Protestants).
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee said he was suspending his campaign for the Republican party nomination.
Clinton was seeking to overcome the ghosts of her loss to Obama in 2008.
Armies of campaign volunteers have fanned out through the state in recent days, knocking on doors or manning phone banks to get out the vote, while candidates dominated the air waves with talk show appearances and a relentless barrage of campaign ads.
Sanders, who describes himself as a democratic socialist, declared his race with Clinton a “toss-up”.
Sanders has campaigned heavily on Iowa college campuses in hopes of motivating new voters to caucus in his favor.
“We will struggle tonight if the voter turnout is low. That’s a fact”, Sanders told volunteers and supporters in Des Moines. Many Republicans view Rubio as a more mainstream alternative to Trump and Cruz, though his viability will depend on staying competitive in Iowa. New terror threats at home and overseas have increased national security concerns.
Early arrivals at Iowa’s Republican caucus sites are deeply unhappy with how the federal government is working. Republican John Kasich already had decamped to New Hampshire, with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush following behind Monday afternoon, hours before the caucuses start. Because of this, elites of both parties could easily manipulate the process and make decisions with little to no regard for the wishes of the people. Sanders, who said he has spoken to 70,000 people at more than 100 town hall meetings in Iowa, told the New York Times.
Both candidates will spin tonight’s result, which was effectively a tie, as a victory, and both candidates will come out of tonight’s contest with roughly the same number of delegates. But, given its prime leadoff spot in the primary season, the state gets extra attention from presidential campaigns. For some candidates, the future of their White House hopes may lie in the balance. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley was polling at the bottom of the shorter list of candidates with about 4 percent. Cruz spent months touring the state and reaching out to evangelical voters.
Both courted evangelicals in Iowa, who are expected to play a huge role – they comprised 57 percent of caucus voters in 2012. While Republicans vote in secret ballots, in the same fashion as most national elections, Democrats attending today’s caucus will vote publically in a two-stage process which eliminates any candidates scoring less than 15% of the vote in the first round of each precinct where the vote is held. There are 30 at stake for Republicans and 44 for Democrats in Iowa, and they’re awarded proportionally. If Trump’s supporters fail to show up in large numbers at the Iowa caucuses, expect his chances in each of these subsequent states to fall sharply.
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