CORALVILLE, Iowa—Former President Donald Trump, now enjoying a big lead in opinion polls, is counting on Iowa voters to deliver a caucus victory.
Speaking at a commit-to-caucus event on Dec. 13, the former president told a capacity crowd at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, “We are leading by a lot, but you have to go out and vote ... the margin of victory is so important.”
And President Trump’s surrogates said that a “data-driven” campaign, a new cadre of trained “caucus captains” and legions of energized first-time caucus-goers, are setting the stage for success.
“This campaign has the best organization I’ve ever seen,” Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird told the audience, adding, “He’s gonna win big.”
A resounding win in Iowa’s Jan. 15 first-in-nation caucuses would “start the ball rolling,” former acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker told the crowd, enabling President Trump to clinch the Republican nomination and the presidency.
That’s far bigger than the widest-ever margin of victory in an Iowa caucus: about 12 percent, Mr. Whitaker said. Therefore, the former president is poised to “set the record for the biggest win in Iowa history” as long as voters show up at the caucuses as expected.
“Donald Trump is doing everything he possibly can to win the presidency,” Mr. Whitaker told the audience, “but he can’t do it without your help.”
The former president called the Des Moines Register poll “a big, beautiful poll,” and drew chuckles from the audience when he added wryly, “I never liked it too much, until about two days ago,” when the poll reported his commanding lead.
He joked that people should “pretend we’re one point behind,” so they would remain motivated to go to the caucuses.
‘Not Just Rallies’
In an interview before President Trump’s speech, Ms. Bird told The Epoch Times that President Trump’s lead in the polls is unprecedented during her lifetime. “We’ve never seen a caucus lead this big for a presidential candidate on the Republican side, ever. Not at this point in the game,” she said, noting that she began attending caucuses when she was 12.And Iowa Rep. Bobby Kaufmann told The Epoch Times that President Trump is benefiting from a more targeted ground game. While some of his Republican challengers have visited many more locations, Mr. Kaufmann said President Trump’s “commit-to-caucus” events in Iowa are “not just rallies.”
At these events, people get more information about caucuses and they sign cards pledging to go to their precinct’s caucus on the night of Jan. 15; about 1,700 precincts across the state all begin their caucus meetings simultaneously at 7 p.m.
“We’re actually getting the infrastructure in place,” Mr. Kaufmann said, “so voters know what it takes to caucus, sign a ‘commit’ card to caucus, and then get contacted by us for caucus trainings, as well as making sure they get out to vote.”
Mr. Kaufmann has spoken at several of these “commit” events. Whenever he asks caucus newbies to raise their hands, “about a quarter of the crowd” responds. “That’s incredible,” he said. “It’s an expansion of the electorate that I don’t think anybody other than President Trump could do.”
In 2016, then-candidate Donald Trump lost the Iowa caucuses to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). Still, the billionaire-turned-politician went on to win the Republican nomination and the presidency.
Since then, President Trump and his campaign staff have improved their approach in Iowa.
In recent weeks, President Trump has been accelerating his presence in Iowa and other states that hold early Republican presidential contests.
He is scheduled to speak Saturday in Durham, New Hampshire. Then he will travel cross-country to Reno, Nevada, before returning to Iowa on Tuesday for a “commit-to-caucus” event in Waterloo.
Mr. Kaufmann said he’s winning not just because of his strategy but also because of “who he is” and the policies he promotes.
Economic Climate
Several Coralville attendees told The Epoch Times that they remember economic conditions were better while President Trump was in office.Rowdy Templer, of Stanwood, Iowa, explained why he is caucusing for President Trump: “You can’t argue with success. When he was in office as president, the things he did were not only successful as an administration, but also helped people in America succeed. People were doing better.”
The overall mood of the nation seemed more upbeat during the Trump administration, Mr. Templer said, adding: “People were ready to buy houses, start businesses. It was a great economic climate in America, which is really at the heart of being American.”
The economy was a major focus of the former president’s speech in Coralville, an eastern Iowa city of about 24,000 people. Attendance at the event was limited to 850 people because of fire regulations, police said.
As President Trump spoke, the words “Better Off With Trump” were projected onto large screens. The typical American family is “$7,500 poorer under [President Joe] Biden,” President Trump said.
“Under the Trump administration, you were better off. Your family was better off ... Our country was better off,” he said. “America was stronger, richer, safer, and more confident than ever before, I would say, and we had the best economy in history.”
The average American homeowner’s mortgage payment was $1,700 under President Trump; it’s now $3,400, he said. He also said mortgage rates hit an all-time low during his tenure; those rates are now much higher.
“As long as Crooked Joe Biden is in the White House, the American Dream is dead,” President Trump said.
During his speech, the former president made only a few references to the court cases and indictments he is facing. Judges have imposed gag orders that seek to restrict what he can say about some of the cases.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung released a statement saying that President Trump was “doing his job as president and protecting our elections from fraud and abuse.”
Mr. Cheung said the prosecutions are interfering with the current 2024 presidential campaign. “The American people, not the courts, should decide who becomes president, and they are supporting President Trump in historic numbers,” he wrote.
President Trump has opened a lead over President Biden in several recent polls, but the two men were still in a statistical dead heat because his lead is within the margin of error.
