Rubio on Cruz: ‘He really is very calculating’

On the Democratic side, both Clinton and Sanders went around Iowa to make their final pitch to voters in a race that Iowa polls show is too close to call.

With just one day to go before the critical Iowa Caucuses, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders suggested that rival Hillary Clinton would hurt Democrats’ chances of retaking the House of Representatives in an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press”.

But Cruz, who once led in several Iowa polls, would need to pull off an underdog victory: a Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics survey released Saturday night found him trailing Donald Trump, 23% to 28%.

Ten Republicans and three Democrats are campaigning in Iowa for their parties’ nominations, but much of the focus has been on the fight between Cruz and Trump and their uneasy relationship with the Republican establishment. Snowfall forecast to start Monday night appeared more likely to hinder the hopefuls in their rush out of Iowa than the voters.

Rubio said, in an appearance on the same program immediately following Cruz (the two hugged, according to moderator Chuck Todd, as they crossed paths) that he was now advocating “securing the border” before any reform. The polls don’t matter.

While it’s always the case that the earliest polls taken a year out from the race have little bearing on the contest, it is still a little startling to see how the race has turned utterly upside down.

Mr Cruz has considerable support in the so-called Hawkeye State, home to many evangelical Christians who are drawn to his strong faith. “Democrats win when voter turnout is high”, he continued. “We are positioned to do very well”.

“One thing everyone agrees on: his crowds are the biggest of any non-incumbent Republican caucus campaign in history, and many haven’t caucused before”, Iowa Republican strategist Tim Albrecht points out. “When you hear him speak he’s actually talking to the people and with the people and for the people”. It will be a total mess.

“We don’t view any state as a ‘must-win, ‘ ” the Texas senator told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview that aired Sunday on “State of the Union”.

Asked whether Rubio could win or come in second, his senior strategist Todd Harris laughingly responded with an obscenity and said the goal in Iowa is third, behind the flamboyant Trump and the highly organized Cruz. I’ll get Pennsylvania. I’ll get Ohio. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Hillary Clinton would participate in additional debates if the DNC agreed to sanction them.

“I think those issues – the decline of the middle class, billionaires being able to buy elections while… people are sinking further and further into poverty – I thought that message would resonate”, Sanders said.

CRUZ: “For someone who owes of hundreds of millions of dollars if not billions of dollars, to attack Heidi and me because we put our life savings into running for Senate, and a statement that the loans weren’t disclosed, he knows that’s flat-out false”.