MANCHESTER, Iowa (AP) – The 2016 presidential contenders are begging their Iowa supporters to get to the caucuses Monday and Donald Trump, true to form, is in-your-face about it.
“You’re from Iowa,” Trump told a Dubuque crowd Saturday. “Are you afraid of snow?”
A snowfall forecast to start Monday night appeared more likely to hinder the hopefuls in their rush out of Iowa than the voters who will be flocking to the caucuses in the first contest of the presidential campaign. Still, there was every reason for candidates to be urgent about turnout in a contest being fought down to the wire in both parties. Democrat Bernie Sanders told supporters that his race with Hillary Clinton looks like a tossup and every caucus-goer counts.
On the Republican side, Ted Cruz directed much of his final advertising against the Florida senator in the frenzied weekend prelude, feeding a Republican feud that turned increasingly bitter in the final days.
Considered to be vying with front-runner Donald Trump for Iowa victory Monday, Cruz denounced the next in line, according to polls, sharply challenging Rubio’s conservative credentials on the airwaves while ignoring him face to face with Iowans. One ad said darkly of Rubio: “Tax hikes. Amnesty. The Republican Obama.”