Ted Cruz takes in nearly $20 million in fourth quarter

Carson and Cruz have been the only two Republican contenders to disclose their fundraising totals.

The late stages of the invisible primary would not be complete without reports of intrigue and skullduggery in Iowa, with campaigns forming tactical alliances against common enemies.

Cruz was in Cisco, Texas, for the past few days.

“It’s the kind of campaign that takes an enormous amount of time and personal dedication”, she said. “We see four states where Marco can succeed, ” Conant said, referring to the four earliest ones – Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. The thinking: “Making the race into a binary choice between Bush and Trump might be the only way a majority of primary voters go with Bush”.

“What I am willing to do is to tell you that I did exactly what I’m encouraging you to do”. He has already announced the backing of Iowa evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats and Focus on the Family founder James Dobson. If they do have influence, they might be able to also pick off some votes now headed toward Ben Carson (7.7 percent in HuffPollster’s Iowa estimate), Cruz and perhaps even some of the other candidates. Rick Santorum have made strong plays to Christian conservatives.

The reason Democrats are usually featured in these Iowa intrigue stories is that their caucus procedures encourage tactical alliances via minimum thresholds for “viability” (i.e., the opportunity to elect state convention delegates, which is the only measurement of success), meaning that support can be loaned to favored candidates and denied to disfavored candidates on a precinct-by-precinct basis.

“The more people that are exposed to Marco, the more people get on board”, said Jack Whitver, a state senator in Iowa and Rubio’s campaign chairman in the state.

Cruz will be the only candidate appearing at meetings January 25 in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines, the last such gathering before the caucuses a week later. Media reactions aren’t all that predictable, but it sure seems likely that a solid 20-percent, third-place finish (or better) could make Rubio an Iowa “winner”, and highly visible Republicans who support Rubio could amplify that message in the neutral and Republican-aligned media.

Those raising money for the candidate said the last few months had proved the easiest as donors shift from other candidates to Rubio to hedge their investments. “It doesn’t make sense”. He was among more than 1,000 people who showed up to hear Cruz speak in a weeklong campaign swing before Christmas that took Cruz to 12 cities in seven states that vote on March 1.

Jeb Bush is leading the GOP field in endorsements, yet he remains stuck in single digits in the polls.

Said Hill: “We’re building this from the bottom up”.