With Iowa caucuses looming, candidates push for turnout

In Iowa, Sanders and Clinton are locked in a statistical dead heat, with Clinton earning 45 percent support of likely caucus-goers compared with 42 percent for Sanders, according to a Des Moines Register/Bloomberg politics.

The Vermont senator spoke for about 50 minutes, marveling at how far his campaign has come from when it was first written off as a “fringe” campaign to one that is now challenging Hillary Clinton, a former secretary of state and one of the country’s most recognized Democrats.

It’s interesting to note that the future state of the nation, and the fate of Clinton, Trump et al, rest in the hands of the people of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and SC as they choose between the party’s candidates.

Trump has 38 percent of support among Republican primary voters, while Cruz has only 13 percent of support.

The state is small and relatively homogeneous, but it is immensely consequential for the top finishers who can claim momentum heading into the primary in New Hampshire.

“Trump was confident. “We’re going to win; we’re going to win”, he said at a middle school gym in Council Bluffs”.

Republican and Democratic presidential hopefuls will make last-minute pitches to the people of Iowa on Monday before voters choose nominees in the state’s caucuses tonight, the inaugural contest of the 2016 election.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas closed out his Iowa campaign with rallies in Iowa City, Davenport, and Des Moines, alongside talk-show host Glenn Beck and Phil Robertson, the patriarch of the reality-TV show Duck Dynasty.

As the first 2016 nominating votes near, Donald Trump’s strength as GOP frontrunner seems only to grow – nationally and in Iowa, where he’s led in five of the last six state polls. He performed 8.3 points better than his last polling average, when he trailed former Gov. Mitt Romney and former Rep. Ron Paul going into the caucus.

Most voters said they did not care that Trump missed the debate.

The campaign believes some of them can be turned, resulting in their supporting Cruz when the time comes to actually caucus tomorrow. “One of the reasons that I’ll win and, I think, none of the other guys will win is because I’m going to get states that they’ll never get”. This year looks to be a two-man race, as well, between Trump and Cruz, whereas five candidates were within 11 points of each other in 2012.

People collect campaign information after a meeting with Democratic presidential candidate Sen.

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. On ABC’s “This Week” interview show, she said, “I feel vetted”.

Hillary Clinton enjoys a narrow lead in the poll over self-proclaimed Democratic socialist Sen.

Cruz’s mother was an American living in Canada when she gave birth to him. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida was overwhelmingly the third choice, at 15 percent. Mr Sanders earlier declared the email flap a non-issue in his mind, but it has still raised questions among voters about Mrs Clinton’s honesty and integrity.