The first votes of the 2016 Presidential election will be cast on Monday, and polls indicate that voters in the state are slightly favoring billionaire Donald Trump over Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
But votes aren’t only thing that could come in a flurry on February 1st. According to meteorologists, there could be a rather large snowstorm in Iowa. And this surprising storm could have a bigger impact than most people are talking about.
It all centers around the big question establishment Republicans have been asking about the Trump campaign. Does The Donald merely have fans, or does the national front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination have voters who will mobilize caucus day, even in poor weather?
Recent interviews with dozens of voters, political operatives, party leaders and campaign volunteers in the past few weeks have painted a mixed picture of Trump’s efforts to make sure they do.
But many believe that even if Trump is falling short when it comes to building a get-out-the-vote effort, his supporters are so enthusiastic that it won’t much matter.
Questions remain about Trump’s turnout effort, which are magnified by his place alongside Cruz atop preference polls in Iowa. Republican leaders in the state largely agree that Cruz, popular with the state’s politically savvy evangelical Christians and social conservatives, has the most powerful get-out-the-vote operation among the GOP candidates for president — complete with an army of out-of-state volunteers housed in dormitories.
The organization and commitment of those volunteers could make a huge difference in inclement weather, experts say.
The issue is that Iowa doesn’t make its presidential choice with a primary. Ballots aren’t cast at polling stations open from dawn to dusk. Instead, a caucus requires voters to show up at a designated place at a designated hour, at night in winter in a snowstorm, to listen to speeches and eventually express support for their favored candidate in a Byzantine voting process.
Only time will tell if Cruz’s superior ground organization can give him an advantage in the nasty weather in critical parts of Iowa, or if Trump fever will simply blast away the cold.
The Associated Press contributed to this article
I hope Trump wins. Cruz is like a sneaky snake oil salesman from the 1880’s. He’s perfectly happy with an immigration system where one linguistic group dominates. I read in the Boston papers about how federal/city/state police arrested many El Salvadorian alleged violent gang members who allegedly have been causing trouble on the north side of Boston communities. Up until recently, those areas were mostly safe Italian, Irish or Jewish-American sections. In the late 1980’s South Boston Congressman Joe Moakley and Arizona Senator Dennis DeConcini decided that El Salvadorians should get special immigration treatment and not be deported. Of course Moakley didn’t have these folks settled in his “Southie”. Mostly on the north side of Boston which had the lowest crime rates up until 10 years ago. Moakley was a petty tyrant. The Federal Courthouse in Boston is named after him. A disgrace when considering that Mass produced at least 50% of our founding father’s, Oliver Wendell Holmes and Louis Brandeis. Instead a petty self server like Moakley got the courthouse named for himself. DeConcini is noted for being one of the Keating Five who were investigated. Trump is correct in emphasizing border control and deportations. The situation in parts of Boston are an example of how rotten our immigration system is.
I agree. In my opinion, a Federal Courthouse in Boston MA should be named after a founding father – someone who forged our Country.
Another sad association between Mass and a very broken immigration and DHS systems is the Tsarnaev brothers, their radicalization, and their cowardly terrorist act during the Boston Marathon.
At least Boston is not like the South Side of Chicago, where daily shootings and murders occur while the police department and Mayor Rahm Emmanuel (an Obama man) look the other way.
And for the record, RONALD REAGAN was born and grew up in Illinois. No one knows where OBAMA is from, but it sure is NOT FROM ILLINOIS.
Boston’s Mayor, Martin Walsh along with NYC’s DeBlasio, Chicago’s Emmanuel and Philly’s Kenny are considered to be the most leftist big city mayors. DeBlasio comes from Mass originally. Yes, a John Adams. John Hancock, Franklin, Paul Revere , Louis Brandeis, Oliver W. Holmes or even Gen. Patton Courthouse would honor the Bay State. Patton married a Mass lady and lived in Hamilton, MA. His family still runs a small farm there. Moakley even got the bridge leading to the courthouse named after his wife. Nothing but a street bum with a title.Most Irish-American look at them as an insult. I think Chicago started getting bad when Daley retired.
Immigration officials have been angry and frustrated for years over the fact that most deportation orders are never carried out–no matter how much a hoodlum the immigrant is. The immigration lawyers for the potential deportee, make them get a haircut and cleaned up in a suit. Then they go before an immigration “judge” who is “sympathetic” (probably paid off) and rules against an order of deportation. They have seen it over and over and over.
And we are courting an even worse problem with all of the Muslims we are importing. Many, many incidents of Muslim “husbands” and “fathers” beating their wives and children go unreported by the PC media. The Quran okays the beating of women and children into “submission”. That is the meaning of the word Islam–“submission” and not voluntary submission, such as that of Christians to their Lord and Savior, Jesus, but a forced submission to the absolute rule of religious authority and that of men. When these families come to the West, the women and children get a taste of the freedom that Westerners have, and start to throw off the oppression of Islam. The men in their families react by beating and even killing their own wives and children, in so-called “honor-kilings”. They also are taught that Western women are very “loose” and deserve to be sexually molested and raped. The extremely liberal Sweden is learning, to their dismay, that Muslim men simply do not adhere to notions of sexual propriety. When they brutalize their families–especially their sons–they breed the next generation of killers. The male half of the murderous couple in the San Bernardino massacre was raised in the U.S. and was sired by a father who beat his mother and the killer. True Islam is incompatible with our values and certainly the values of our nation. Early American statesmen were always hesitant to permit “Mohammedans” to immigrate here because they understood that the Quran preached sectarian violence and an ideology that was antithetical to their notions of denying the domination of the nation by any religion. They had seen the oppression of the European common man, through the cooperation of the Roman Catholic church with the crowned heads of Europe. That is why they were determined that there would never be a “state religion” like the state religions of Europe. That doesn’t mean that they were anti-Christian–far from it. Early American statesman, the brilliant John Adams, once said:
“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion…Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” The Founders of the nation understood the importance of morality based on Christian principles. They were just opposed to any religion dominating the political process. Islam is a threat because it teaches that Islam should dominate everyone and everything. The Mullahs actively teach against democratic principles and should be deported if they do so as they are preaching the overthrow of the government in doing so. That is called sedition.
I agree I’m voting for Trump.I don’t think Cruz has enough common sense to know what immigration is doing to our country.We need a wall built between us and Mexico.We need to also heighten security.And for the sake our country keep those Syrian terrorist refugees out.If they are allowed here we will have war right here in our own country.It will be us against the terrorist and then muslims.Then what?We must all stand together and vote for Trump.A man that has a plan.The rest don’t even have clue.
I’ll be voting for Trump. However, it was Cruz who bought out the lying ways of the GOP such as Boehner, McConnell, McCain, Ryan and the rest of the RHINOs. So good for him.
THEN WHY WOULD YOU ABANDON THE GUY YOU KNOW WILL GO UP AGAINST HIS OWN PARTY TO DO THE RIGHT THING. I AM FROM TEXAS WE KNOW TED CRUZ AND HE IS A MAN OF HIS WORD. TEXAS IS ON THE FRONT LINES OF THE IMMIGRATION NIGHTMARE WE HAVE ENTIRE CITIES OVERRUN AND FOREVER CHANGED. DONALD TRUMP IS GOOD AT SELLING HIMSELF – TED CRUZ IS ONE OF US . A VOTE FOR DONALD TRUMP IS HANDING THE PRESIDENCY TO BARRY SANDERS I KNOW TO MANY PEOPLE WHO HAVE WATCHED ALL OF THE DEBATES AND THERE IS NOTHING YOU COULD DO TO MAKE THEM VOTE FOR TRUMP.
Trump is a business men I don’t believe in him
Trump is the man!!!
I migrated to USA 16 years ago through USA lottery division program. That’s how we should bring immigrants USA so everyone has a background check. We don’t need lazy and criminals in land of opportunity.
Trump…make America great!!!