Iowa caucus countdown

SIOUX CENTER, Iowa—The circus of the Iowa caucuses hit its final acts this past weekend as candidates from both parties crisscrossed the state searching for support in tonight’s first-in-the-nation presidential votes. The stops included final moments in Iowa churches and Christian colleges, as the push for Iowa’s evangelical voters continued.

The weekend featured close to 60 events.

In Iowa City, Democratic hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., closely trailing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, sang “This Land Is Your Land” with rock group Vampire Weekend. Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson cajoled a crowd in Sioux City into making duck calls on behalf of Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Meanwhile GOP front-runner Donald Trump invited children under 10 to tour his private plane in Dubuque.

Trump may have been in a welcoming mood after the latest Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics poll showed him retaking the lead over Cruz, his main rival. Trump won support from 28 percent of the poll’s voters while Cruz dropped to 23 percent.

At an appearance in Ames, Cruz derided the nation’s celebrity culture and blamed it for Trump’s surprising staying power. “Next cycle, I’m told, Lady Gaga’s going to run,” Cruz quipped.

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida has separated himself from the rest of the crowded Republican pack to claim third in the latest poll, with 15 percent.

“Tomorrow you must caucus, in my opinion, respectfully, for someone who gives us a chance to win, not just someone who has the chance to win the nomination,” Rubio told a crowd in Cedar Rapids on Sunday, suggesting he is less divisive than the two men he is chasing, “Someone who has a chance to win the presidency.”

All the candidates stayed busy in the campaign’s final hours, as 45 percent of the poll’s respondents said they could change their minds before the caucus meetings begin at 7 p.m. Central tonight. On Sunday, that meant church stops for the contenders.

Cruz attended the Lutheran Church of Hope in West Des Moines. Pastor Mike Housholder’s message focused on Christians not being “doormats” and embracing a love that is not weak.

Rubio participated in Sunday Mass in West Des Moines, at St. Francis of Assisi Roman Catholic Church. Trump took in a service at First Christian Church in Council Bluffs and later traded in his normal stump speech for a one-on-one interview before an Iowa crowd with Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr., who has endorsed Trump.

Weather could play a factor in tonight’s contests: Forecasters are calling for heavy snow, including a blizzard watch in portions of northwest Iowa, starting Monday night. But caucus observers hope a warmer-than-normal weekend will keep the snow from sticking until after the votes are cast.

While Trump, Cruz, and Rubio battled for the top spot, other Republican candidates didn’t stay at home. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson held his second-to-last “Trust In God Town Hall” on Saturday afternoon at Dordt College, a private Christian university in northwest Iowa that already had visits from the top three candidates in January.

Carson spoke to the 400 attendees about American exceptionalism: “You’ve heard of the American dream. … There’s no Canadian dream, there’s no French dream.”

Carson, at 10 percent in the most recent poll, also emphasized the effect his faith had on his decision to run for president.

Anya Kalsbeek, a senior at Dordt, said Carson’s speech “felt more like a sermon than a political rally.”

A day earlier, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush visited Dordt. Polling at just 2 percent despite spending $15 million in the state, Bush spoke to a smaller crowd, compared to the more than 1,000 who came to campus to hear Trump a week earlier.

Introduced by a Medal of Honor recipient, Bush began by decrying the shrinking size of the U.S. military. He also touted his pro-life reforms as Florida governor before turning his focus to the Democrats.

Steve Kelly, president of Dordt’s Republican club, compared Bush’s appearance to Trump’s earlier speech at the school.

“I think people walked away from the Donald Trump event a little bit frustrated, and coming to an event like this right afterward is good for this kind of community that just wants a little more of a common-sense kind of candidate,” Kelly said.

After hearing from the likes of Trump, Rubio, Cruz, Carson, and Bush, many Dordt students remain intrigued by another candidate: Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who is at 5 percent in the polls.

“I like his top-down approach to liberty and also his willingness to address the debt crisis,” said Taylor Deegan, a Dordt junior.

On this last weekend, all the political hopefuls shared one focus: getting the voters to transition from attending the festival-like candidate rallies to making time for the more businesslike nature of the actual caucuses that will occur in 1,681 precincts throughout the state.

“You’ve gotta get out,” Trump told the crowd in Dubuque, brushing off the threat of bad weather. “You’re from Iowa! Are you afraid of the snow?”