Peter Schorsch
In a final frenzy to inspire supporters to turn out for Monday’s Iowa caucuses, the presidential contenders scrambled to close the deal with the first voters to have a say in the 2016 race for the White House.
Here is a live-blog of the latest developments:
10:45 p.m. — It’s Ted Cruz on top in the leadoff Republican presidential caucuses in Iowa.
The Texas senator has edged past of Donald Trump and a crowded GOP field.
Cruz won with strong support from Iowa’s influential evangelical community and conservative voters.
Cruz’s victory in the first contest of the 2016 race comes just four years after he rode a tea party wave to win election to the Senate.
The race now moves to New Hampshire, where Trump has strong support among voters frustrated and angry with Washington.
1o:38 p.m. — Mike Huckabee, the winner of the 2008 Iowa caucus, has suspended his campaign.
I am officially suspending my campaign. Thank you for all your loyal support. #ImWithHucK
— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) February 2, 2016
10:19 p.m. – Democrat Martin O’Malley has suspended his presidential campaign.
O’Malley campaigned as a can-do chief executive who pushed through key parts of the Democratic agenda in Maryland. They included gun control, support for gay marriage and an increase in the minimum wage.
But O’Malley struggled to raise money and was polling in the single-digits for months despite campaigning actively in Iowa and New Hampshire.
10:00 p.m. – Early returns out of Iowa show a tight race, with 62 percent of Republican caucus sites reporting.
Ted Cruz currently has the lead with 28 percent, followed by Donald Trump with 25 percent. Early returns show Marco Rubio is in third place with 22 percent.
Cruz and Rubio have been neck-in-neck in Iowa for weeks. In the final Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics Iowa Poll, Trump led Cruz 28 percent to 23 percent. A Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics Iowa poll conducted in early January showed Cruz ahead of Trump.
The caucuses saw high turnout this year, with the Des Moines Register’s Jennifer Jacobs reporting that Iowa GOP leaders project higher turnout than in previous years.
8:35 p.m. – The crowd has come alive for Marco Rubio at a concert hall that’s hosting caucuses for two Iowa precincts outside Des Moines.
The Florida senator tells caucus-goers that he knows they might have come out to support other candidates in the Republican race. But he also says that he believes “with all my heart I can unite this party.”
8:25 p.m. – Ben Carson plans to trade the cold of Iowa for the warmer Florida for a few days.
A campaign spokesman says the Republican presidential candidate is heading home to West Palm Beach after the Iowa caucuses.
Carson plans to speak at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington on Thursday and then will head to New Hampshire.
The plan is to leave Iowa on Monday night in hopes of getting ahead of a winter storm.
“Not standing down” — that’s what spokesman Jason Osborne posted on Carson’s twitter feed.
8:15 p.m. – Donald Trump‘s voice is hoarse but he still has lots to say.
He’s telling 2,000 Republicans in suburban Des Moines, Iowa, that “we’re going to win again” and take back the country.
Trump is criticizing the Obama administration’s foreign and trade policy, promising to command respect for the United States in the world.
Trump says his mission in the presidential race is to “make America great again.”
8:05 p.m. – Early arrivals at Iowa’s Democratic caucus sites are split among health care, the economy and income inequality as the top issue facing the country.
That’s according to preliminary results of an entrance poll at caucus locations.
Almost 3 in 10 say experience is the most important quality in deciding which candidate to back. What’s next? Honesty and someone who cares about people like them.
Six in 10 say the next president should continue President Barack Obama‘s policies.
The survey was conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks by Edison Research as voters arrived at 40 randomly selected sites for Democratic caucuses in Iowa.
7:55 p.m. — Republican or Democrat — Jeb Bush is criticizing them all.
President Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump. Ted Cruz. Marco Rubio.
Bush was in Iowa earlier Monday, but decided to spend the evening campaigning in New Hampshire. The former Florida governor told supporters in New Hampshire that Obama is “a failed president.” He’s also took a swipe at Trump — thought not by name — for insulting his way toward the presidency.
The latest statewide polls in Iowa show Bush in a fight for second place. Trump has a commanding lead.
7 p.m. – The Republican race in Iowa seems to be a three-way contest among Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.
6:50 p.m. – For the election night party in Iowa, Ted Cruz‘s campaign has booked a country music band that bills itself as having “blue collar roots and a fun attitude.’
Red, white and blue banners with Cruz’s campaign slogans “Trusted” and “Cruzin’ to Victory” are hanging from the ceiling of the Elwell Family Food Center at the Iowa State Fairgrounds.
But most of the attention will be focused on two large video screens that will show results from the Iowa caucuses.
6:45 p.m. – Jeanette Rubio encourages Iowans to caucus for husband in new Web video
Marco Rubio is out with two new Web videos, including one featuring his family.
In a pre-caucus message, Jeanette Rubio and her children thanks Iowans for “their wonderful hospitality in this past year.”
“Please remember to come out and caucus for Marco,” she tells supporters with the Rubio’s four children by her side. “We need you and can’t do this without your support. Thank you and God bless.”
A special message for Iowans from Jeanette and the kids before the #iacaucus tonight:https://t.co/aI9fFhIJRh
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 1, 2016
6 p.m. – “On Caucus Night, Iowans Have Better Things to Do” via Darren Samuelsohn of POLITICO Magazine.
The Iowa caucuses Monday night might be the single most important event on the American political calendar so far this year. But for a lot of people here, they’re not even the most important thing happening in Iowa. In the Fairfield High School gym in southeastern Iowa, the Albia Blue Demons are in town to take on the home team Trojans, first the girls basketball teams, then the boys. The games are expected to pull in a hundred or more people from the two towns—players, families, cheerleaders, and alums—who will spend Monday night cheering in the gym rather than arguing the merits of Trump and Cruz, or Hillary vs. Bernie.
“Iowa Caucus results by county: Six key areas” via Steve Shepard of POLITICO.
Sioux County: Sioux County is two counties to the north of Woodbury, and it’s far smaller — with fewer than half the number of precincts in 2012. But politically, it is more conservative. Sioux provided [Rick] Santorum with his largest margin of votes than any county in 2012 — and the same is true of the surrounding counties. Santorum won 46 percent of the vote in Sioux (943 votes). Immediately to the north, in smaller Lyon County, Santorum won 61 percent (329 votes); to the east, in O’Brien County, Santorum won 45 percent (265 votes). This could be a crucial area for … Cruz if he is going to hold onto his lead on caucus night. “This is where Cruz is making the effort to touch every county … For the Republicans, every individual vote really counts.”
5:20 p.m. – Even before Iowa’s caucuses get underway, Donald Trump is predicting “a tremendous victory.”
That’s his message to supporters in a hotel ballroom in Cedar Rapids.
Trump is banking on a stronger-than-usual turnout. Polling shows many potential caucus-goers are new to the process.
Some of Trump’s children plan to attend caucuses around the state and promote their dad’s candidacy.
5:06 p.m. – New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is telling New Hampshire voters that Republicans shouldn’t make the same mistake Democrats made in 2008: electing an inexperienced one-term senator as president who isn’t ready to lead.
President Barack Obama was a first-term U.S. senator when he was elected to the White House in 2008. Like Obama — and unlike a governor like himself, Christie implied — Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz aren’t ready for the big job.
“These guys have never managed anything. Rubio and Cruz have never managed a thing, yet we’re thinking of making the same mistake from a leadership perspective that Democrats made eight years ago,” he said.
Christie said he could’ve run for president four years ago, but knew he wasn’t ready.
“The only think worse than running for president and losing is running for president and winning and not being ready,” he said. “To put a first-term U.S. senator back in office immediately after the last seven years we’ve just had is crazy. These guys are not ready,” he said.
Christie spent Monday morning in Iowa but quickly headed back to New Hampshire, where he has focused much of his efforts.
4:37 p.m. – New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has ditched Iowa for New Hampshire, where he has focused much of his campaign. But he told voters at the first of his two town hall meetings they should be thinking of a particular Iowa couple when they cast their vote on Feb. 9.
Speaking in Hopkinton, N.H., Christie described a husband and wife in Burlington, Iowa, whose oldest son is heading to Iraq in a few months. Christie said seeing the tears in the woman’s eyes made him think both of his own experience as a father and about previous presidents who have sent young men and women off to war.
“When you start to think about the last eight days of this election, I hope when you make your decision … at least part of the time will be consumed by thinking about that mom and dad, because your choice will have more of an impact on them than on any other kind of family in this country,” he said.
“In the end, the person you select next Tuesday night is going to be the person lots of families are going to depend on, and is going to be the personification of our country, the person who symbolizes what this country stands for,” he said. “It’s not only important from a substantive perspective, it’s important in terms of what kind of image we portray to the world.”
2:48 p.m. – The National Weather Service says temperatures in Iowa are expected to remain above freezing when hundreds of thousands of people gather Monday night for the caucuses. That’s great news the candidates, who have been begging their supporters to turnout to caucus.
But Meteorologist Kelsey Angle says snow will move into southwest Iowa late Monday and spread through much of the state overnight. Up to a foot of snow is forecast along with wind gusts reaching 40 mph. That could complicate the getaway plans of candidates, their campaigns and others heading to New Hampshire for the next-up primary on Feb. 9.
2:36 p.m. – Republican Donald Trump is asking his supporters to keep an eye out for potential tomato-throwers at a rally in Cedar Rapids.
Trump says he was informed by security before walking onstage at his final pre-caucus rally that someone in the Doubletree Hilton ballroom might have one to lob.
He tells supporters if they see someone getting ready to throw a tomato, they should “knock the hell out of them.”
He says, “I will pay for the legal fees, I promise.”
Trump is working to get out the vote ahead of tonight’s caucuses.
He was introduced at the rally by his most famous backer: Tea Party star Sarah Palin.
Trump is telling Iowans that it’s been a pleasure campaigning in their state and is encouraging people to get out to their caucus sites tonight.
He says, “this is the day we take our country back.”
12:45 p.m. – John Kasich says his rivals should follow his lead and call on the super PACs supporting them to take down negative advertisements.
Kasich, who is spending Monday campaigning in New Hampshire rather than Iowa, says candidates should spend the next week talking about “what they’re for” rather than knocking each other down.
Kasich’s campaign on Monday told the super PAC backing him not to air a negative television ad against rival Marco Rubio. Campaigns and super PACs are barred from coordinating, but the super PAC chose to replace the negative ad with a positive spot about Kasich.
Kasich, who has largely declined to hit his rivals, has started shaming them for promoting what he says are lies about his record. Many of his GOP opponents use his expansion of Medicaid in Ohio to tie him to President Barack Obama. But Kasich isn’t backing down from his choice, saying it’s saved lives in his home state.
12:30 p.m. – Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has a chance to sway at least one undecided voter at one of his final campaign stops in Iowa.
Jane Gaines of Churdan, Iowa, came to see Cruz on Monday and she doesn’t know who she will caucus for just hours later at night. Churdan says she came to hear Cruz’s message, but she’s leaning toward supporting retired surgeon Ben Carson.
Churdan says, “I look for real. I look for transparent. I look for a statesman and not a politician.”
Others at Cruz’s event in Jefferson, Iowa, say they plan to caucus for him.
Tracie Perez of Scranton, Iowa, says she has been a Cruz fan since he ran for the Senate in 2012. Perez says she’s “praying hard” for Cruz, but worried rival Donald Trump may win.
12:20 p.m. – The commander of military operations against the Islamic State group says carpet bombing strikes against Islamic State militants — a tactic proposed by Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz — is “inconsistent with our values” as a nation.
Army Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland spoke by teleconference from Iraq. He said such indiscriminate bombing would kill innocent civilians as well as enemy combatants. MaFarland added that the United States has a guiding set of principles that govern how American forces conduct themselves on the battlefield.
Right now, MacFarland says, “we have the moral high ground and that’s where we’re going to stay.”
He adds that Russia is reported to have conducted carpet bombing in Syria.
12:14 p.m. – Donald Trump says evangelical Christians “really do get me.”
He’s bragging about his support from the group also pursued by rival Ted Cruz just hours before the leadoff Iowa caucuses.
Trump says at a rally in Waterloo Monday morning that “the evangelicals have been unbelievable to Donald Trump.”
“Boy do they understand me. They understand me better than anybody,” he adds.
The thrice-married Trump may seem an unusual fit for the conservative Christian voters that play a large role in Iowa. But he has won the support of many, including Liberty University founder Jerry Falwell Jr.
Trump said Monday that if he’s president, he’ll “protect Christianity,” which he says is under siege. He also says believing in God “so important” to happiness.
Trump spoke to a smaller-than-usual crowd at the Ramada Waterloo Hotel and Convention Center, where many seats were left unfilled.
Supporters may have been dissuaded by the heavy fog that blanketed local roads all morning.
12:13 p.m. – Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders says that win or lose in Iowa, he’s planning for a long campaign.
Sanders says in a brief availability with reporters on his campaign bus that if Clinton “ends up with two delegates more of many, many hundred delegates, you tell me why that’s the end of the world?”
Sanders adds, “This is a national campaign. We are in this to win at the convention. We’re taking this all of the way.”
11:50 a.m. – Donald Trump is telling Iowans that rival Ted Cruz “will destroy your ethanol businesses, 100 percent.”
Those are fighting words in the agricultural state that voting on presidential nominees at Monday night’s caucuses.
At a morning rally in foggy Waterloo, Iowa the billionaire real estate developer said Cruz is controlled by his donors, including big oil companies.
He says, “Your ethanol business if Ted Cruz gets in will be wiped out within six months to a year. It’s going to be gone.”
Cruz has advocated phasing out ethanol subsidies over time — a position that is deeply unpopular in the agricultural state.
In contrast, Trump says, “I’ve been consistent, I’ve been solid, and I’m a supporter and I always will be a supporter.”
11: 45 a.m. – Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is imploring his volunteers and supporters to help him claim victory in Iowa’s caucuses.
Sanders says, “We’ve got a tie ballgame – that’s where we are.”
Sanders is predicting that his campaign will win tonight if the voter turnout is high. He says, “We will struggle tonight if the voter turnout is low. That’s a fact.”
He’s rallying his supporters, saying, “Let’s go get ’em!”
11:30 a.m. – Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley says he doesn’t know Donald Trump well, though he thinks any of the Republican candidates will “govern in a much more conservative way than (President Barack) Obama.”
At an event hosted by Bloomberg Politics Monday, the longtime Republican senator says Trump is “responding to the frustration of the American people.”
Asked about the Republican frontrunner’s past proposal to impose a massive tax on goods from China, Grassley said such a move would be a mistake, likening it to the increase in tariffs before the Great Depression. But he said he was not convinced such a thing would really happen.
“You eventually reach a common sense solution,” Grassley said.
The Republican presidential contender told The New York Times several weeks ago that he’d “tax China on products coming in” to the U.S. and “the tax should be 45 percent.” But since then he has said he doubts the tariff would be necessary at all.
10:55 a.m. – Hillary Clinton is stopping by a campaign office in south Des Moines to rally her troops ahead of Monday night’s Iowa caucuses
Bearing iced coffee and doughnuts, Clinton and her daughter, Chelsea, are mingling and snapping selfies with several dozen volunteers.
“I had to stop by and tell you how much I appreciate your hard work,” Clinton is saying. “I thought I’d bring you some unhealthy snacks!”
Nearly 9,000 campaign volunteers for the campaign knocked on 186,000 doors in Iowa over the past three days, according Clinton’s staff.
“I’m so excited tonight. I’m feeling so energized!” Clinton says.
10: 15 a.m. – Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst says she can’t answer whether Donald Trump is a true conservative.
At an event hosted by Bloomberg Politics Monday, the freshman Republican said this was a question for the GOP front runner. She said that a few years ago, “I would not have agreed he is a conservative.”
Ernst noted that there was little record to judge Trump on. But she stressed that she would support the eventual Republican nominee.
Ernst has not endorsed a candidate in the crowded Republican field, though she has appeared at events with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
9:30 a.m. – “Democratic, GOP races tight as Iowa kicks off 2016 voting” via Julie Pace and Catherine Lucey of the Associated Press.
After months of campaigning and more than $200 million spent on advertising, the race for supremacy in Iowa is close in both parties. Among Republicans, Trump appears to hold a slim edge over Cruz … Clinton and Sanders entered Monday in a surprisingly tight Democratic race, reviving memories of the former secretary of state’s disappointing showing in Iowa eight years ago.
“We knocked on 125,000 doors this past weekend,” Clinton told NBC’s Today Monday morning. “Although it’s a tight race, a lot of the people who are committed to caucusing for me will be there and standing up for me and I will do the same for them in the campaign and in the presidency.”
“If you had told me a year ago that two days out from the Iowa caucuses we would be neck and neck, effectively tied for first place in the state of Iowa, I would have been thrilled,” Cruz said.
8:15 a.m. – “Marco Rubio to visit three Iowa caucus sites before first votes.”
Some Iowa caucus goers will hear a personal plea from Marco Rubio on Monday night.
Rubio is scheduled to visit three caucus sites Monday night to speak to caucusgoers before they cast their votes. The visits will be Rubio’s final attempt to woo voters before the Iowa caucuses begin.
7:31 a.m. – Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says she has no regrets having endorsed billionaire Donald Trump for president over his rival Ted Cruz, who she endorsed during his run for a seat in the U.S. Senate.
Speaking to NBC’s Today on the morning of the Iowa caucuses Monday, Palin said her support “added some momentum” to Cruz’s campaign and as the senator from Texas, he has gone on to fight for the American people.
“I want to keep him in the Senate and I want Donald Trump to be our president,” she said.
Palin also defended comments she made at one of Trump’s rallies when she blamed her son’s behavior on President Barack Obama for not doing more to help veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome.
Palin insisted that America needs a new president who she says will not “kowtow, allow the enemy to be poking at us.”
7:09 a.m. – Presidential candidates vying for their party nominations are toning down their attacks against rivals opting instead for messages of reflection on the morning of the country’s leadoff Iowa caucuses.
Speaking to NBC’s Today on Monday, billionaire Donald Trump declined to predict the outcome of the caucuses, noting that fellow Republican Sen. Ted Cruz is “a talented guy.”
On ABC’s Good Morning America, Trump is admitting: “You have to be a little bit nervous,”
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio also praised the drive of rival Cruz, with whom he’s repeatedly clashed on a range of issues, saying Cruz “has a very strong ground game.”
Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton praised her campaign staff and said that rival Sen. Bernie Sanders has run the campaign he wants to run, noting, simply, “we have differences.”
10:15 p.m. — Ted Cruz’s rally on the night before the Iowa caucuses got off to an odd start with someone yelling, “He looks so weird!” as the Texas senator took the stage.
The man, who appeared to be ill, was escorted out of the state fairground building Sunday night as he continued yelling: “Ted Cruz looks so weird!”
Cruz tried to laugh off the disruption, saying it appeared the bars had let out early. As the man continued yelling, Cruz asked, “Is that Trump back there?”
The rally attracted hundreds of people as Cruz was ending a day across Iowa that also included campaign stops in Iowa City and Davenport as he makes his closing argument to voters ahead of Monday’s caucuses.
8:30 p.m. — Trump is known for his raucous rallies, filled with rowdy protesters and screaming fans.
But the billionaire businessman struck a much more staid tone as he campaigned across western Iowa Sunday on the final day before the state’s kickoff caucuses.
Trump ended the evening sitting on a Sioux City theater stage, where he was interviewed for the third time in two days by Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr.
The evangelical leader endorsed Trump last week and has been campaigning with the billionaire businessman as he works to win over Christian voters from rival Ted Cruz.
8:20 p.m. — Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders says at Grand View University that the country has reached a “pivotal moment” and many understand it is “too late for establishment politics and establishment economics.”
He is holding his final Iowa rally before Monday’s caucuses, drawing 1,700 people to a Des Moines college gym.
Sanders urged supporters to band together to “tell the billionaire class they cannot have it all.”
He is crediting Iowa for helping elect then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama to the presidency eight years ago. He says the nation can pursue policies like paid family and medical leave, free college tuition and a transformed energy system to combat climate change.
7:50 p.m. — Trump ended Sunday with a simple message to his backers.
“We have to win in Iowa,” he says.
Trump told an audience in Sioux City Sunday evening that he’s been encouraged to temper expectations, but just can’t bring himself to do it.
“People say, ‘Donald, just ‘do well’ in Iowa.’ I say. ‘I can’t do that. I really want to win.'”
“Now maybe it won’t work that way,” he adds, “but if we do we’re going to run the table, folks, and we’re going to make this country so great. You’re going to have victories all over the place.”
Monday’s kickoff caucuses will provide the first test of Trump’s unorthodox campaign’s organizing might.
8:08 p.m. – @R2RUSA: Report: Raised: $15.1M Raised TD: $118M COH: $58.6M
5:25 p.m. — Bernie Sanders is telling a group of volunteers and organizers packed into one of his field offices in Marshalltown, Iowa, that he’ll need every bit of support to win Monday’s caucuses.
He said the goal is to “do everything that we possibly can to bring out our friends, our family, our co-workers to create the largest voter turnout that we possibly can.”
He says the campaign isn’t just about his policy positions like making the wealthy pay a fairer share in taxes, demanding a $15 an hour minimum wage, pay equity for women and better trade policies, but also “it is about revitalizing American democracy — that’s what you’re doing here. This is the political revolution!”
4:25 p.m. — Jeb Bush is showing no sign of going down quietly on the eve of Iowa’s leadoff caucuses, despite falling behind in the polls. The former Florida governor says Marco Rubio supporters should “stop whining” about attack ads from his allies.
He says the Rubio attacks are “minor league baseball” compared to what Democrats will do to the Republican presidential nominee during the general election.
“If you can’t handle that, then how you gonna deal with a unified Democratic Party that will go out to try to destroy you? And be president of the United States?” Bush told the AP. “This is a tough job. This isn’t beanbag. Everybody’s gotta get a grip.”
Bush continued: “You don’t think that the Republican nominee is gonna get the bark scraped off him by the Clinton machine? This is minor league baseball, man.”
3:45 p.m. — Donald Trump’s closing pitch to Iowa caucusgoers is a family affair.
The GOP candidate’s rarely-heard-from wife Melania has joined her husband at an afternoon rally after a visit to a local church.
She says her husband with be, “unbelievable. The best dealmaker, the best master negotiator.”
Trump is also joined by his pregnant daughter Ivanka and her developer husband.
Trump says doctors advised Ivanka not to make the trip and joked about her potentially giving birth here.
“Wouldn’t it be great if she had the baby in Iowa?” he asks the crowd.
3:40 p.m. — Bernie Sanders is urging his supporters to help him make history and send a message to those who back establishment politics.
Kicking off his final day of campaigning in Waterloo, Sanders says the nation will be looking at whether Iowa is prepared to move the nation away from establishment politics and economics. He says Monday night could be a “very historic night for this country. We can make history.”
The self-described “democratic socialist” said the country would not make progress unless voters had the “courage” to confront challenges head-on.
“If you sweep the problems under the rug they ain’t going to get better,” he said.
Sanders is pushing back against arguments by Clinton and her supporters that she would be the most electable Democrat to take on Republicans in the fall. The Vermont senator says the “excitement and the energy is with our campaign” and it will help the party drive a large voter turnout in the fall.
3:15 p.m. — Hundreds of people packed a fairground building in Iowa City to hear Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and a host of celebrity backers the day before the Iowa caucuses.
Cruz says on Sunday that the stakes are too high for Iowa voters to make the wrong choice. He says “we can’t get fooled again.”
Cruz and his wife, Heidi, were joined by Cruz’s father, Rafael, and by “Duck Dynasty” reality TV star Phil Robertson, conservative commentator Glenn Beck and Iowa Rep. Steve King.
Robertson says the country is mired in “depravity” and “perversion,” but Cruz can turn it around because he trusts God and James Madison, the architect of the Constitution. Robertson says “That trumps Trump.”
Cruz supporter Carlene Murphy, of Kalona, Iowa, says she thinks the caucuses will be tight, but that Cruz will prevail. She came to see him in Iowa City.
Murphy says, “I think we’re going to pull through.”
2:44 p.m. — Trump is criticizing a mailer rival Ted Cruz’s campaign sent to voters that Iowa’s secretary of state says misrepresents the law.
Trump claims at a rally in Council Bluffs that Cruz is under investigation over a “voting violation” notice his campaign sent to caucus goers.
Trump says, “You’re not allowed to do it and they’re investigating him now.”
“It is so dishonest. It is so dishonest,” he adds.
In a statement released Saturday, Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate says the mailers misrepresent Iowa election law and adds, “Accusing citizens of Iowa of a ‘voting violation’ based on Iowa caucus participation, or lack thereof, is false representation of an official act.”
But Pate made no mention of an investigation.
Cruz told reporters in Sioux City on Saturday that the mailing is “routine.”
2:26 p.m. — Rubio is making an all-out appeal Sunday to about 450 pragmatic Republicans during his last question-and-answer session of the Iowa campaign.
Rubio tells the audience at the University of Northern Iowa, “It’s not just about who you like the most. It’s about who gives us the best chance of winning.”
Groups supporting Cruz or Rubio are trading attack ads on the two senators’ records on issues, especially on immigration.
And although Rubio has critiqued Cruz for voting to cut military spending, he adds, “This is not just about making a point, it’s about making a difference. This election has to be about the future.”
1:50 p.m. — Leaders of a super PAC backing John Kasich are accusing a super PAC backing Rubio of involvement in an attack ad put up by a political group that doesn’t reveal its donors.
The American Future Fund recently spent more than $1 million on a New Hampshire commercial calling Kasich “an Obama Republican.” As a nonprofit, that group does not have to disclose its donors.
American Future Fund and Conservative Solutions PAC, a super PAC backing Rubio, share an ad producer, Outlaw Media, which on its website bills itself as a “boutique” firm.
New Day for America cites this and a separate secret-money group that has helped Rubio as clues that the rival candidate’s backers are behind the American Future Fund ad. Last year, a nonprofit called Conservative Solutions Project spent $11.6 million on commercials boosting Rubio.
Connie Wehrkamp, a spokeswoman for New Day America, says: “It’s going to be difficult for Rubio’s team to keep a straight face denying they are behind the shady dark money attacks.”
A spokesman for Conservative Solutions PAC says his group has nothing to do with the American Future Fund ad — and has not hesitated to contrast with other candidates in ads, meaning it would have little incentive to turn to another group to do so.
The leader of American Future Fund also has said no candidate allies approached him about making the ad.
1:45 p.m. — Ohio Gov. John Kasich says if elected president he’ll push Congress to freeze every federal regulation not dealing with health and safety for a full year.
Campaigning at an Elks Lodge in Salem, New Hampshire, Kasich says cutting regulations that kill small businesses would be a priority of his first 100 days. He says after sending Congress a bill to freeze regulations, he’d start a review of “every regulation in the country.”
Kasich has made reducing the size of government central to his campaign. A clock showing the growing national debt is standard at his town hall events, and he often cites his work to balance the federal budget when he was in Congress during the 1990s.
Kasich is the only candidate in New Hampshire on Sunday as his rivals campaign in Iowa. He does not plan to return to Iowa for Monday’s caucuses. He’ll host three events in New Hampshire instead.
1:40 p.m. — The Democratic National Committee says it’s reached an agreement in principal to have the party sanction and manage more debates during the presidential primary schedule, including a debate in New Hampshire next week.
The DNC says it wants to give Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley time to focus on Monday’s Iowa caucuses and would finalize details on Tuesday morning.
The statement comes after the Clinton and Sanders’ campaigns traded testy statements about plans for Thursday’s debate in New Hampshire and three more during the spring.
Clinton trails Sanders in New Hampshire and wants next week’s debate to help her connect with undecided voters before the state’s primary on Feb. 9.
Sanders hopes to extend his run deep into the spring and adding three more forums might help him accomplish that goal.
1:35 p.m. — Rubio says watch for the boots. Rubio says the lofty-heeled boots he caught ribbing about early this month may make a return, if he does well on caucus night.
At the start of a campaign event in Cedar Falls, Rubio joked with people in the front row of the University of Northern Iowa auditorium about sneaking a peak at his footwear.
Did he have them on?
“No, I don’t,” he says, adding they’re only for “really, really, really, really special occasions.
So if Rubio does well in Monday night’s caucuses, look out for them.
“They may come back. If I look 6-foot-4 on TV, it’s because I’m wearing boots.”
1:30 p.m. — Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad will make appearances on behalf of two candidates before the state’s caucuses on Monday.
Branstad says he’ll introduce New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at an event Sunday night and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at an event Monday. He says they are the people who asked and who fit his schedule.
The popular six-term Republican has not endorsed a candidate, though he drew headlines recently for encouraging Iowans to support candidates other than Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Cruz opposes the federal renewable fuel standard, which requires a minimum amount of petroleum additives such as corn-based ethanol.
Branstad says the Bush and Christie events are just to show “appreciation for what they’ve done for me.”
12:30 p.m. — Republican presidential contender Donald Trump is looking to close the deal with Iowa’s evangelical Christian voters on the last day before they caucus.
Trump attended services at the First Christian Orchard Campus, a nondenominational church in Council Bluffs.
He, his wife, Melania, and two staffers took communion when it was passed. But Trump, momentarily confused, mistook the silver plates circulated around the auditorium and dug several bills out of his pocket.
“I thought it was for offering,” he said with a laugh to his staff.
He contributed several minutes later when the offering plates were passed.
As Trump was leaving, one of the church pastors put his hand on Trump’s shoulder and offered a prayer, “That Jesus would guide his decisions and that only Christ could guide his decisions,” the pastor later said.
Trump gladly accepted, bowing his head.
“Thank you, I need that,” he said.
12:10 p.m. — The chief super PAC helping Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio raised more than $30 million last year, half of it in the last six months.
Conservative Solutions PAC shared its fundraising numbers ahead of a required filing Sunday with federal regulators.
Billionaire New York investor Paul Singer gave $2.5 million, making him one of Rubio’s most generous supporters. In October, Singer wrote a letter to his friends encouraging them to back Rubio in the primary contests. Chicago-based investor Ken Griffin also gave $2.5 million shortly after announcing his support for Rubio in December.
Other seven-figure contributors include Florida auto dealer and longtime Rubio booster Norman Braman, financier Cliff Asness of New York and roofing company executive David Humphreys of Missouri.
Conservative Solutions PAC began the year with about $14 million left to spend.
11:44 a.m. — On a day when presidential candidates report their fundraising totals for 2015 to federal regulators, Democratic contender Bernie Sanders is going a step further. His campaign says it raised more than $20 million this month.
That means his pace is picking up. Earlier, his campaign said it raised $33 million over the last three months of 2015, compared to $37 million for Hillary Clinton’s campaign in the same time period.
Clinton’s campaign did not immediately respond to a question about its January fundraising.
11:20 a.m. — Rubio is upbeat entering the final stretch of his Iowa campaign, while trying to stay realistic about the outcome of Monday’s contest.
During an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Rubio built expectations for rival Sen. Ted Cruz as “clearly the front-runner,” while trying to trim his own prospects the day before the caucuses.
A Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics poll of likely Republican caucus-goers published Saturday showed Cruz trailing billionaire Donald Trump and Rubio in solid third.
Rubio is wrapping up a nine-day blitz of Iowa on Sunday with events in Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids and Davenport.
Rubio tells CBS: “The crowds are growing. The people signing up are growing. Our campaign structure feels good about it … We’ll have a strong showing on Monday night.”
10:30 a.m. — Even at church, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz can’t escape politics.
The Texas senator attended services Sunday morning at Lutheran Church of Hope outside Des Moines. The sermon by pastor Mike Housholder called on politicians to treat their opponents with love, not attack ads.
Housholder preached that speaking the truth with love is a better way to treat others. He says if you can’t do that, don’t speak.
Cruz attended the service with his wife, Heidi, and their two daughters. Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley was also there but did not sit by Cruz.
Housholder said after the service he wrote the sermon before he found out the Texas senator would attend and did not tailor it to him.
Cruz greeted parishioners, shook hands and took pictures before departing for his first campaign stop of the day in Iowa City.
10:20 a.m. — Even the candidate who says he’s the best, the smartest and the highest-energy in the Republican field is leaving nothing to chance a day out from the Iowa caucuses.
Attendees at Donald Trump’s event in Dubuque Saturday night awakened to an email from his Iowa political director, Chuck Laudner, personally thanking them for coming.
And urging them to caucus.
“It is extremely important that you get out there and VOTE for Mr. Trump,” Laudner wrote. Not sure where? Laudner includes a special tool “to make this process as easy, and fun, as possible” — the “Republican Iowa Caucus Finder.”
Click the link and enter a home address and the finder will “tell you the correct place to show up on caucus night so that you can help elect Donald Trump!”
8:59 a.m. — Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says the hubbub over whether she had secret emails on her server is “very much like Benghazi,” a politically motivated scandal that’s likely not as serious as Republicans suggest.
Clinton told ABC’s “This Week” that “it’s pretty clear” that Republicans are “grasping at straws” in their response to the latest release of emails from Clinton’s private home server. The State Department announced it’s withholding some of those emails because the information they contain is too highly classified. The former secretary of state says she’s been told some of that email correspondence included a public newspaper article. Clinton insists she never sent or received information on her personal email account that was classified at the time. She repeated her call for the emails’ release.
As secretary of state, Clinton presided over a key piece of the government’s response to the deadly 2012 assaults on a diplomatic compound and CIA quarters in Benghazi, Libya. The attacks killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and quickly became a political rallying cry for Republicans.
8:40 a.m. — Trump says “many” senators will endorse his candidacy, “very soon.”
Trump tells on ABC’s “This Week” that members of the Senate will choose him over their own colleague, Sen. Ted Cruz, who is also Trump’s top rival in Iowa. Trump did not offer any senators’ names.
Trump says Cruz is “a nasty guy” and a “liar,” particularly about whether Trump essentially supports President Barack Obama’s signature national health care program. Trump says he would replace that law and make other deals that would accomplish his public policy goals.
Cruz says the nation doesn’t need a dealmaker, it needs a “fighter” for conservative causes.
8:30 a.m. — Bernie Sanders says he’s ready to turn the political world upside down in Iowa.
The Democratic presidential candidate says that if his supporters turn out in large numbers for Monday night’s caucuses, “I think you’re going to look at one of the biggest political upsets in the modern history of our country.”
The Vermont senator is in a tight race with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Sanders tells CNN’s “State of the Union” that his campaign has gotten lots of people involved in politics who hadn’t been before. He mentions the working class as well as young people who no longer “want to sit back” but want to help direct their country’s future.
7:45 a.m. — Trump isn’t shy about boasting, but the Republican presidential front-runner says he also has a humble side.
Here’s what he tells CBS’ ” Face the Nation” in an interview: “We’re all the same. I mean, we’re all going to the same place, probably one of two places, you know? But we’re all the same. And I do have, actually, much more humility than a lot of people would think.”
Asked about hiding that side, the billionaire businessman says, “I’d rather not play my cards. I want to be unpredictable.”
One thing he’s not lacking is confidence. In the interview, he said “none of the other guys will win.”
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Material from The Associated Press is used in this post.
