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Trump's desperate to win Iowa, a battle he lost to Ted Cruz in 2016, and has packed YES-men into local fight

The president is a certain favorite to win the February 3 caucus against his two opponents
PUBLISHED JAN 24, 2020
President Donald Trump (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

On February 3, the first major test of the 2020 presidential elections’ primary season will be held in Iowa. Going by the tradition, the Hawkeye State will aim first to pick the nominees from both major parties. However, while the Democratic caucuses in Iowa hold a lot of promise, the Republican event looks to be less eye-catching since President Donald Trump is certain to contest on the GOP ticket once again.

Trump’s reelection campaign team, however, is working hard to woo the Republican voters. Trump will address a rally in Iowa later this month while the GOP has planned training sessions. There is a new video featuring Trump’s daughter-in-law and senior campaign adviser Lara which explains the caucus process and boosts Trump’s supporters to back him. Vice President Mike Pence is also planning a bus tour in the state. This makes it evident that the Republican camp doesn’t want to look pale compared to the Democrats’ brimming political activism.  

Trump will take on former Illinois Representative Joe Walsh and former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld in the Republican caucuses.

Trump lost to Ted Cruz in Iowa in 2016, his first-ever contest

Trump has a point to prove in Iowa. He finished second best to Texas Senator Ted Cruz in the Republican caucuses in the state in February 2016. The businessman-turned-politician got 24 percent of the votes while Cruz got 28 percent. Florida Senator Marco Rubio finished third with 23 percent. While Cruz said: “God bless the great state of Iowa” after his victory, Trump was no less upbeat. “We will be back many many times. I think I might come back here and buy a firm,” Trump said, showing little disappointment over his close defeat. 

Trump has not forgotten Iowa. His current campaign in the state is much more detailed compared to what it was in 2016. There are more staffers deployed on the ground giving a better coverage to 99 counties and nearly 1,700 precincts that the state has.

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz addresses supporters after winning at the caucus night gathering at the Iowa State Fairgrounds on February 1, 2016, in Des Moines, Iowa. Cruz beat out frontrunner Donald Trump and Marco Rubio (R-FL) to win the Iowa caucuses.

“It’s an amazing tool that will pay dividends for us for the entire year,” Eric Branstad, a senior campaign adviser in Iowa who had also directed Trump’s campaign there in 2016, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. “It really gives us an opportunity to activate our base.”

“The Iowa caucuses are a chance to flex the organizational muscles of President Trump’s campaign,” Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh, who promised a “heavy presence across the entire state" in the coming days, was quoted as saying.

A number of states have seen the GOP canceling its primaries and caucuses to give Trump an empty field but Iowa decided to cling on to its status of ‘first-in-the-nation’ contest in the nomination race.

Trump campaign eyes loyalists this time to avoid 2016-like loss

The story also has another part. In 2016, Cruz’s campaign operation locked in delegates who supported him instead of Trump and the latter’s campaign is still upset about it. Shortly after he got elected, Trump’s campaign worked overtime to monitor and influence local party operations to ensure that only Trump loyalists make it to the Republican nominating convention in August. In that direction, the campaign has overhauled the state GOP’s leadership, rewritten state party rules and spread out across the county and state caucuses and conventions to elevate leaders and potential delegates who are reliable supporters of the president.

When Lara says in the video that “it is imperative that we only select the top supporters of President Donald J. Trump for this honor,” one can understand the urgency of the Trump campaign to bag Iowa this time.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to guests at a campaign rally at Burlington Memorial Auditorium on October 21, 2015 in Burlington, Iowa. Trump leads most polls in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

In 2016, almost all of Iowa’s delegates picked Cruz and tried to oppose Trump at the convention. This time, it will be immensely difficult for the ‘Never Trumpers’ to place anti-Trump delegates once the caucuses get over. Jeff Kaufmann, the chairman of the Iowa Republican Party, called it “embarrassing and classless” and added that they were not taking any chances this time. 

Trump, however, humbled his Republican opponents in the next battle of the 2016 primary cycle and it was in New Hampshire.

When it came to the presidential elections, Trump beat Hillary Clinton (who had a thrilling contest with Bernie Sanders in Iowa Democratic caucuses) in Iowa by nine percentage points to bag all the six electoral votes that the state offers. In the mid-term elections of 2018, however, it was a balanced result in the Hawkeye State. Republican Governor Kim Reynolds had a narrow win while the Dems succeeded in flipping two GOP-held seats in the House. 
 
Even the Republican camp has conceded that compared to the Democrats’ crowded race which promises an explosive show in Iowa, the Republicans will have a no show but at the same time, said that the Trump campaign is doing things the right way ahead of the first nominating contest. Jimmy Centers, a GOP official in Des Moines, was quoted as saying by Washington Examiner: “I don’t think anyone is expecting Republican turnout in the caucuses to be anywhere near close to the Democrats. But the Trump campaign is doing all of the right things to position themselves going forward.”

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