Iowa’s caucuses form an idiosyncratic election system in which neighbors in each political party meet to debate and select their preferences for president.
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Texas Senator Cruz questioned his rival’s conservative authenticity on abortion and religious liberty and appeared alongside Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson, who branded same sex marriage “wicked” and “evil”.
The state is tailor-made for Ted Cruz, with lots of conservative evangelical voters. He calls Donald Trump “a very good entertainer” but says that he needs to explain how he plans to accomplish goals like defeating ISIS.
“So I would say Trump and Clinton have the most to lose because they are expected to win. I don’t want to win for myself”. 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.
“If everyone here brings nine other people to the caucuses [Monday] night, we will win the caucuses [Monday], we will win the nomination, and we will win the general election in November 2016”, Cruz said.
He announced that Sarah Palin will again join him Monday for a final get-out-the-vote effort and in an interview with ABC News Trump bragged about “how well I’m doing with evangelicals”.
Cruz has spent the closing days of the Iowa campaign focused intensely on Marco Rubio, trying to ensure the Florida senator doesn’t inch into second place.
The Iowa caucuses will set the tone for the race for the White House, providing a first indication of the strength of outsider candidates like billionaire Donald Trump and democratic socialist Bernie Sanders.
The race for the Democratic nomination looks like a two-person contest, pitting Hillary Clinton against Bernie Sanders.
This gets a little complicated, but bear with me.
“That’s what makes Iowa so interesting is it’s so complicated”, Podesta said.
Not only are the Iowa caucuses run differently than most other states’ primaries, even how the two parties run their caucuses in each of the state’s 1,681 precincts are markedly different. Trump would need somewhere between 135,000 and 10,000 GOP Iowans to show up to the polls Monday.
Polls showed 80 percent of Hillary Clinton’s supporters were ready to caucus for her. Although his overall share of the vote in the Quinnipiac survey is 17 percent, he is supported by 28 percent of moderate/liberal Iowa Republicans, by 24 percent with college degrees, and by 26 percent of those with annual incomes in excess of $100,000. “I hope you guys come out and caucus on Monday night”.
“Frankly, if you have to work or you’re sick, you’re out of luck,”election lawyer and Fordham law Professor Jerry Goldfeder told WCBS 880’s Alex Silverman”. That result is different from the Des Moines Register poll released Saturday, which also featured a three-point difference, but with Clinton in the lead, 45% to 42%.
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“That’s really against the time-honored tradition we have where we really cherish our secret ballot”, Goldfeder said. A possible problem for Sanders: Only about one-third of voters are projected to be first-time caucus goers, compared to 60 percent in 2008, when Barack Obama surprised Clinton by winning the caucus.
