Only two days remain before the Iowa caucuses, the first contest in a tumultuous presidential campaign that has challenged long-held political assumptions.
The Republican race in Iowa is businessman Donald Trump’s or Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s to lose on the night of February 1. While some party leaders are coming to grips with the prospect of Trump as the nominee, a group of more mainstream candidates is battling to beat expectations in Iowa, head into the New Hampshire primary on February 9 with momentum and rise to challenge the front-running billionaire.
The Democratic race has evolved into a surprisingly heated contest between Hillary Clinton and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, the self-described democratic socialist who has energised young voters and liberals. Sanders’ late surge has revived memories of Clinton’s surprising loss to then-Illinois Senator Barack Obama in Iowa in 2008.
Even as Iowa lays down the first marker in the 2016 race, more potential uncertainty looms. Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has jolted the race yet again by starting to explore a third party run, particularly if Trump and Sanders are the nominees.
With a week to go, a look at a few of the unknowns that voters in Iowa will answer caucus night--
Can anyone or anything stop Trump?
Trump has done and said so many things that would have ended the campaign of just about anyone else. Even he’s amazed at his apparent inability to commit a political error. Many professional Republicans disdain Trump and worry about his long-term effect on the party’s ability to win over general election voters. Trump has topped most preference polls for months, and the waiting for his star to fade long ago gave way to bafflement. Yet Trump’s success so far is based almost entirely on those polls. He has picked up former Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s endorsement and has the tacit support of several evangelical leaders in Iowa. Still, not a single voter has weighed in and tested whether Trump actually is unbound by political gravity.
Did Ted Cruz peak too soon?
Cruz has perhaps the clearest path to the nomination. As the new year dawned, he appeared poised to unite a fractured conservative base and become the leading force as the campaign focus shifted to South Carolina in mid-February and across the South in March. That still might happen. But his momentum has stalled as high-profile conservatives defected to Trump and Cruz’s rise drew stiff opposition from mainstream Republicans. Iowa ought to be a place where Cruz’s appeal among Christian conservatives gives him a distinct advantage. But Republicans who dislike Trump as much as they disdain Cruz — and many find both unacceptable — now wish for a Trump victory in Iowa.
Do Clinton’s attacks on Sanders succeed?
For months, Clinton spoke relatively warmly about Sanders. The fear was that any harsh critique of the liberal senator who is pushing a “political revolution” might alienate his supporters, so important to the Democratic nominee in the general election. As Sanders’ standing in preference polls has risen, to the point where some show him ahead in Iowa, so has Clinton’s rancor. In the past week, Clinton went after Sanders’ foreign policy credentials, his health care proposal and his plans to crack down on Wall Street. She questioned his electability and cast him as a flip-flopper on gun control. Clinton’s campaign says Sanders was overshadowed by the raucous Republican field and subjected to little scrutiny earlier in the race. Now that his views are getting more attention, the Clinton team says, his support will begin to fall. But Sanders has compared Clinton’s efforts to those in the 2008 race, when she knocked Obama’s proposals and experience. If he’s right, will Clinton endure another Iowa backlash, again fueling a rival’s insurgent campaign?
Can Marco Rubio pull off his late Iowa push?
For months, the Florida senator ran what many observers saw as a national campaign. Now, Rubio is making a late, aggressive push in Iowa. His team argues that more Iowans will have seen him, and many will have met him, than any other candidate. Yet only recently has Rubio visited Republican strongholds such as Sioux Center in northwest Iowa. He has not gone to Denison, a Republican hub in Crawford County.Rubio’s Iowa staff doesn’t compare with Cruz’s. But Rubio benefits from Conservative Solutions, a super political action committee with no official ties to Rubio’s campaign. The group is identifying voters by phone, online and social media and using the connections to help turn out Rubio supporters. Rubio is seen as the favorite in some Republican quarters to emerge as the alternative to Trump and Cruz. He got a boost Saturday night with the endorsement of The Des Moines Register, a prominent Iowa newspaper.
Who shows up to vote on caucus night?
Party loyalists tend to dominate the Iowa caucuses, but an influx of independent and young voters can create a winning formula. Sanders and Trump hope to expand the size of the caucus by generating a big turnout among both groups. Only Republicans and Democrats can participate in the caucuses, but the state allows same-day registration for independents. In 2008, the last time Democrats had a contested caucus, about 20% were independents, and Obama won about 40% of those caucus-goers. Young voters accounted for about 20% of the caucus that year, and Obama won more than half. In 2012, entrance polls showed that nearly one-quarter of Republican caucus-goers were independents, and libertarian-leaning Ron Paul took more than 40%. While Paul’s son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, is in the Republican race this year, Trump has the most riding on these voters.