Iowa caucus results: Clinton and Sanders too close to call; Cruz bests Trump

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With the Iowa caucuses results between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in a dead heat early Tuesday, the focus quickly turned to a small number of precincts that weren’t reporting results.

The Sanders team said the Iowa Democratic Party dropped the ball.

The party rejected that description as inaccurate, saying there was adequate staffing at the caucuses. The problem, an official said, was that they were having trouble getting in touch with precinct chairs to get the results.

“We have reached out to the campaigns for help in contacting the chairs for our outstanding precincts,” the official said.

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(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson lobbed jabs at his rivals and the media following Monday’s Iowa caucuses in which he finished a distant fourth.

“For months, my campaign has survived the lies and dirty tricks from opponents who profess to detest the games of the political class, but in reality are masters at it,” Carson said in a statement, while noting he did better in Iowa than three former or current governors. “Even tonight, my opponents resorted to political tricks by tweeting, texting and telling precinct captains to announce that I had suspended my campaign -- in some cases asking caucusgoers to change their votes.”

Earlier on Monday, his campaign fought off reports of the possibility he may suspend his campaign as he heads home to Florida, rather than on to New Hampshire and South Carolina, the sites of the first Republican primaries.

“After spending 18 consecutive days on the campaign trail, Dr. Carson needs to go home and get a fresh set of clothes,” Larry Ross, a spokesman for Carson, said as early returns were tallied. Still, the comment raised eyebrows among political observers.

Ross vowed that Carson would push forward and be on the ground in New Hampshire and South Carolina in the weeks ahead.

After months of polling and endless speculation, actual voters finally took to the polls Monday in Iowa’s caucuses. Yes, they were a relative handful of people and not a particularly diverse set. But they were nonetheless real voters, lending flesh to all the political theories. Iowa’s track record of picking winners has been mixed, but it almost always shapes the race. This year’s results were a typical mixed bag of dashed expectations and surprising surges.

Here are a few things we noticed:

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Carly Fiorina, the failed California U.S. Senate candidate who had a brief burst of momentum in the GOP presidential race, finished with just under 2% of the vote Monday.

The candidate, a former business chief executive who unsuccessfully ran for the Senate seat held by Barbara Boxer in 2010, received fewer than 3,500 votes in the Iowa caucuses.

She finished seventh of 12 candidates.

Her campaign and the super PAC backing Fiorina’s bid did not respond to requests for comment.

Fiorina tweeted Monday night that she was boarding a plane: “See you soon, New Hampshire.”

Fox News reported that Fiorina skipped her own caucus party because of an incoming blizzard.

In the days leading up to the caucuses, Fiorina had pledged she would surprise the political observers who had declared her White House bid dead.

“I’m here to tell you ... on Monday we’re going to surprise people here in Iowa, and we’re going to leave here with the wind at our back,” she told supporters at a photography exhibit here last week.

It’s unclear whether the poor showing will prompt Fiorina to leave the race. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who finished with 139 fewer votes than Fiorina, announced Monday night he was suspending his campaign.

A spokeswoman for the Fiorina super PAC tweeted Sunday that it had $4.5 million in cash on hand, more than enough money to continue its effort. And in Fiorina’s 2010 Senate race, she refused to concede until the day after votes were cast, despite losing by 10 points.

Fiorina invested heavily in Iowa, crisscrossing the state and holding 138 town halls, rallies and meet-and-greets, among the most appearances for a GOP candidate. Her charisma on the stump, which she displayed in her unsuccessful Senate run, was indisputable. For a brief moment as summer turned to fall, Fiorina rose in the polls.

During the first GOP debate in Cleveland in August, she was relegated to the undercard debate for second-tier candidates because polls showed she had little support.

A sterling performance drove up her numbers, landing her a spot on stage at the September prime-time debate at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.

She again delivered a well-regarded performance and memorably confronted GOP front-runner Donald Trump, who had made critical remarks about her appearance.

In the aftermath, Fiorina’s polling hit double digits in Iowa.

But since October, the former Hewlett-Packard chief has been mired in the low single digits. In the Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics poll released Saturday, Fiorina drew the support of 2% of likely Iowa GOP caucusgoers, tied for last place.

The decline, according to political observers, was a consequence of her squandering her post-Reagan debate momentum, the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino placing an even greater emphasis on foreign policy experience, and a crowded GOP field.

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The man behind Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign on Monday night said he expects “a tremendous bounce” out of Iowa after the Vermont senator found himself locked in a race there with Hillary Clinton that was too close to call.

“An early success gives your candidate and your campaign credibility to future voters,” said Sanders’ campaign manager Jeff Weaver. He said he was looking forward to taking the campaign to New Hampshire “where the senator is very, very popular.” Sanders is ahead in many polls there.

Although the Iowa race was virtually tied Monday night, Sanders and his supporters looked and sounded like they were celebrating a victory.

In a speech to a jubilant crowd in the ballroom of a Des Moines hotel, Sanders said the Iowa results signaled the beginning of “a political revolution.”

“Nine months ago we came to this beautiful state,” Sanders said. “We had no political organization, we had no money, no name recognition. And we were taking on the most powerful political organization in the United States of America.”

Sanders, who had to catch a plane to New Hampshire, stuck close to his stump speech, vowing to fight for more equality and to create “an economy that works for working families, not just the billionaire class.”

He also mentioned the need for prison reform, which he said would disproportionately benefit Latinos and African Americans.

Whether Sanders can appeal to those groups may well determine the future of his campaign. Polls show he continues to lag behind Clinton in name recognition and favorability among those demographics, which could have major consequences in the early primary states of Nevada and South Carolina.

Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager, said the campaign is prepared to fight for those voters.

“I think people are going to be surprised,” he said.

The headline from the Los Angeles Times editorial board sort of says it all: “Ted Cruz does the country a favor by beating Donald Trump in Iowa”

Read the editorial.

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Hillary Clinton urged Democrats to unify after late returns in the Iowa caucuses showed her with a razor-thin lead over Bernie Sanders.

“I stand here tonight breathing a big sigh of relief: Thank you, Iowa,” Clinton told supporters.

“When it is all said and done we have to be united against a Republican vision and candidates who would drive us apart and divide us.”

Clinton noted that she had been following the GOP candidates “very closely,” and rejected their divisive message.

“I understand what they’re appealing to, and I intend to stand against it,” she said.

“The Democratic Party and this campaign stands for what is best in America.”

(John Taggart / Associated Press)

Chastened by his loss in the Iowa caucuses, a subdued Donald Trump told supporters Monday night that he was “happy with the way everything worked out” and still expected to win the Republican presidential nomination.

“We will go on to easily beat Hillary or Bernie or whoever the hell they throw up there,” Trump told a few hundred supporters in a hotel ballroom.

Joined onstage by his wife, Melania Trump, and other family members, the New York billionaire told the crowd he had come to love Iowa.

“We will be back many, many times,” he said. “In fact, I think I might come here and buy a farm. I love it, OK?”

Trump said he also loves New Hampshire and South Carolina, where his loss in Iowa could make it more difficult for him to win the upcoming primaries.

“We finished second, and I want to tell you something, I’m just honored,” he said. “I’m really honored.”

Trump also congratulated Iowa winner Ted Cruz, the Texas senator he’d been attacking relentlessly for weeks, and thanked his family and campaign team.

“On to New Hampshire,” he said as the crowd chanted “Trump, Trump, Trump.” “So long, everybody.”

Trump’s concession speech lasted just three and a half minutes.

Ted Cruz tapped the memory Ronald Reagan and the power of evangelical voters in celebrating his Iowa caucuses victory Tuesday.

And at one point, the conservative firebrand even sounded like President Obama: “Yes, we can!”

“Morning is coming,” Cruz said from the stage in Des Moines, joined by his wife, Heidi, invoking the former president.

He also thanked New Hampshire for helping Reagan win in 1980.

Cruz, who overpowered billionaire Donald Trump, gave blessings to Iowans, a nod to the evangelical voters who helped power his win over Donald Trump.

Between the “Camp Cruz” volunteers — who moved into the Hawkeye State to stump for the Texas senator — and his “grass roots army,” Cruz said he turned out 48,608 votes — more than any other Republican caucus winner in Iowa.

In a long speech that was not carried by all of the networks because Hillary Clinton began speaking at the same time, Cruz framed his win as a repudiation of the Washington elite.

“Tonight is a victory for the grass-roots. Tonight is a victory for courageous conservatives across Iowa and all across this great nation,” told supporters from a chilly brick building on the state fairgrounds. “Iowa has sent notice that the Republican nominee and the next president of the United States will not be chosen by the media, will not be chosen by the Washington establishment, will not be chosen by the lobbyists, but will be chosen by the most incredible, powerful force where all sovereignty resides in our nation, we the people, the American people.”

Also joining Cruz were his father, Pastor Rafael Cruz, Iowa Rep. Steve King, and influential evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats.

His father, who visited Iowa’s churches on behalf of his son, repeatedly pointed to the sky in thanks.

Bernie Sanders supporters were celebrating Monday night— even though the Democratic race was still too close to call.

“I think we’ve already won,” campaign volunteer Shawn Jahner said. “We closed a 40-point gap in three months.”

Sanders was trailing rival Hillary Clinton by only a few tenths of a percentage point Monday night.

He and several hundred others watched the votes roll in at a raucous campaign party in Des Moines. The Sanders supporters, many of whom had just supported him at their regional caucuses around the city, drank beers and danced to a soundtrack of funk music.

The crowd erupted in cheers of “Feel The Bern!” each time the Vermont senator appeared on screen.

A win for Sanders in Iowa would help launch him onto the national stage, Jahner said. “Look what it did for Obama in 2008.”

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(Paul Sancya / AP)

Marco Rubio celebrated his third-place finish in Iowa by poking at naysayers after he came within striking distance of billionaire Donald Trump for the No. 2 spot.

“This is the moment they said would never happen,” said Rubio, flanked by his wife, Jeanette, and four children.

“For months they told us because we offered too much optimism in a time of anger,” the first-term Florida senator said.

“They told me that we had no chance because my hair wasn’t gray enough and my boots were too high” — a reference to his semi-famous high-ish-heeled shoes.

The strong finish gives Rubio’s sluggish campaign the potential boost it needs heading into New Hampshire.

Rubio has long positioned himself as the candidate of “tomorrow,” trying to force a direct contrast to Hillary Clinton, and onstage in Iowa he called the 2016 election a referendum on the country’s future.

In a nod to his age, the senator added that some factions of the party said he “needed to wait his turn.”

“That I needed to wait in line,” said Rubio, 44. “But tonight here in Iowa the people of this great state sent a very clear message – after seven years of Barack Obama we are not waiting any longer to take our country back.”

“There are only two ways forward for us now: We can either be greater than we’ve ever been or we can be a great nation in decline,” he said.

Ted Cruz’s campaign views Donald Trump as its only obstacle to winning the GOP nomination and plans to repeat its Iowa play in the upcoming primaries and caucuses, a top aide said Monday, moments after Cruz was declared the winner of the Iowa caucuses.

“We already have 10,000 volunteers in Georgia, 200,000 volunteers nationwide,” said Rick Tyler, Cruz’s communications director. “We’ll just replicate this model in state after state after state.”

Speaking to reporters at Cruz’s caucus night party, Tyler said that despite Sen. Marco Rubio’s strong third-place showing, Trump will be their top foe.

“Trump has an uncanny ability to make news. Even though you’re all here and we won, somehow Trump will be the story tomorrow,” he said. “Rubio is going to get lost in that. He’s not going to be the story. Trump will be the story. And Trump can write checks. Rubio’s going to leave here with no money.”

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People, including Clinton volunteer and actor Blake Cooper Griffin from Los Angeles, watch returns at a caucus night rally for Clinton at Drake University in Des Moines.

(Andrew Harnik / Associated Press)

Hillary Clinton jumped out to a small, early lead as Iowa counted its caucus returns, but as the evening has worn on, her margin has grown steadily smaller.

With half the vote counted, Clinton had a 3-point lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. With almost 90% in, it was down to half a point.

One potential good sign for Clinton was that a disproportionate amount of the uncounted votes were in the state’s most populous county, Polk, which includes Des Moines. She has maintained about an 8-point margin in the county, and if that holds up, her lead would expand once again.

For now, though, the race remains far too close to call.

Boos erupted at Donald Trump’s caucus party outside Des Moines after CNN declared his rival Ted Cruz the winner of the Iowa caucuses.

“I’m a little bit surprised,” said Skip Craig, 54, a sales manager in Clive. “I’m really not sure what he did wrong.”

“I’ll just keep my fingers crossed and hope he does better in New Hampshire,” said Terri Braun, 61, a Des Moines nurse. “I’m disappointed.”

Trump’s crowd included first-time voter Mindy Lidke, 38, of Beaverdale. She was inspired by his brash rhetoric and shake-up-the-system approach to politics.

“Get to the point and get the job done,” she said as TV monitors tuned to CNN showed Trump rival Ted Cruz pulling ahead.

Like other Trump backers, Lidke put illegal immigration at the top of her concerns.

“I don’t want people that are illegal stealing my job or getting jobs that us American citizens should have,” she said.

When TV monitors in the hotel ballroom showed a CNN correspondent saying the atmosphere in the room was “subdued,” the sound was abruptly cut off and the crowd shouted “Trump, Trump, Trump,” a few times, but quickly fell silent.

(Mary Altaffer / Associated Press)

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas surprised national front-runner Donald Trump in the Iowa caucuses Monday, galvanizing evangelical Republicans with his arch-conservative message.

His victory in the first nominating contest over Trump, the reality star and real estate mogul who is leading in most national polls, broadens the fight for the Republican presidential nomination.

Trump remains the favorite but will now see his self-made image as persistent winner take a hit as the primary season shifts to New Hampshire as a three-way race.

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Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz are leading in Iowa. But on Facebook, it’s Bernie Sanders who’s dominating the conversation there.

Sanders, in fact, has been the most discussed candidate on Facebook throughout the day. Here’s the breakdown from Facebook’s policy communications team:

• Bernie Sanders: 42.2%
  
• Donald Trump: 22.4%
  
• Hillary Clinton: 12.4%
  
• Ted Cruz: 11.5%
  
• Rand Paul: 4.5%
  
• Ben Carson: 2.2%
  
• Marco Rubio: 1.8%
  
• Martin O’Malley: <1%
  
• Rick Santorum: <1%
  
• Mike Huckabee: <1%
  
• Carly Fiorina: <1%
  
• Chris Christie: <1%
  
• Jeb Bush: <1%
  
• John Kasich: <1%
  
• Jim Gilmore: <1%

(Jim Cole / Associated Press)

Martin O’Malley, the former Maryland governor who is winning less than 1% of the vote in Iowa, will drop out tonight, according a source close to campaign.

O’Malley will announce his withdrawal at his caucus party within the hour at Wooly’s in Des Moines.

The dark-horse candidate has been spending more time in Iowa than almost any other presidential hopeful yet has failed to make a dent in Hillary Clinton’s support, and has fallen far behind insurgent candidate Bernie Sanders.

A spy in Ames sends along this caucus sheet from a Republican caucus site.

Sen. Marco Rubio won this particular group, with Sen. Ted Cruz coming in second and — surprise! — Sen. Rand Paul coming in third. Donald Trump tied for fourth place with Ben Carson.

Reminder, there are hundreds of these happening across the state, so these results aren’t indicative of who will win.

Our source says the room was “PACKED!!” so full the group of 182 Republicans present had to move into a larger room in the building. (They were expecting 60 people.)

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus welcomed the “off-the-charts” enthusiasm seen in high voter turnout Monday in Iowa.

“That’s the positive,” Priebus said on Fox News.

“Yeah, there’s some drama,” he added. “It’s going to be tight, obviously.”

The RNC chairman said it’s not the party’s job to winnow the GOP field to a establishment-backed candidate and that the committee won’t take part in efforts to prevent billionaire Donald Trump’s rise.

“Our job is going to be to get behind the nominee,” said Priebus on Fox News. “Whoever our nominee is.... We’re going to be there.”

Melissa and Matt Nuzum of Ankeny brought their two children to Sen. Ted Cruz’s caucus party after voting for him, citing his faith and integrity.

“He seems completely honest. He’s a Christian and he stands for Christian values – that was the best thing for me,” said Melissa Nuzum, a stay-at-home mom who home-schools Elijah, 14, and Mia, 8.

She added that she had another motivation – she believes Cruz has the best chance of beating Donald Trump. “Not Donald Trump. Please, anybody but Donald Trump.”

Matt Nuzum said he was torn between Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio until the weekend. He ultimately was swayed by the campaign Cruz has waged in Iowa, and by several friends who are Cruz supporters.

“I feel like I’ve gotten to know him a lot better based on that, whereas Marco Rubio I really don’t know too well,” said the 40-year-old, who works at John Deere.

The couple brought their children to the caucus because they thought it was important for them to see how the process works.

“He’s 14, so next time we do this, it will be his turn to step up and he needs to know how to do it, what to expect,” said Matt Nuzum. “It’s easier to do things if you already know what’s going to happen ahead of time.”

Get live results here.

With Iowa caucus results flowing in and amid fading support for his campaign, Ben Carson is scrambling to maintain an appearance of strength.

The retired neurosurgeon’s campaign fought off reports Monday evening of the possibility he may suspend his campaign as he heads home to Florida, rather than on to New Hampshire and South Carolina, the sites of the first Republican primaries.

“After spending 18 consecutive days on the campaign trail, Dr. Carson needs to go home and get a fresh set of clothes,” said Larry Ross, Carson’s communications director. “He will be departing Des Moines later tonight to avoid the snowstorm and will be back on the trail Wednesday.”

Ross said the candidate looks forward to “meaningful debates in New Hampshire and South Carolina” in the weeks ahead.

As early returns in the Iowa caucuses began to come in, Carson was in fourth place behind Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Donald Trump and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.

A note on why the caucuses are unique.

It’s 85 minutes after they started, and the Democratic caucus meeting being shown on CSPAN 2 is just now having voters in the room divide into candidate preferences.

You must really care about your candidate to be convinced to stick around a scene like this one, at dinner time.

Chris Christie has never been one for subtlety, and Monday night was no exception.

His arrival at Nashua Community College in New Hampshire for a town hall meeting was no simple walk-on. He showed up instead in his shining silver campaign bus as Bon Jovi blared overhead.

“Iowa is now in the rearview mirror,” Christie declared, somewhat prematurely since Iowa voters were still attending caucuses, after acknowledging that his arrival might have been just a bit much.

Christie also was unsparing in his criticism of his GOP rivals, taking on Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio in particular for their exchange on immigration at last Thursday’s debate.

“If they can’t turn our ideas into action then it doesn’t matter. It’s another failed presidency,” the New Jersey governor said, after directly comparing both first-term U.S. senators to President Obama. “They’re not ready.”

He also mocked Republican front-runner Donald Trump, calling the former “Apprentice” star’s claim to executive experience “make-believe.”

“When the speaker of the House doesn’t post your bill you can’t fire him,” he said.

And if the media isn’t kind to you, he added, “you can’t take your marbles and hide upstairs in the White House. You’ve got to stand up and step into it.”

Only one Republican - Ohio Gov. John Kasich - has made more stops in New Hampshire than Christie, and he is counting on a strong performance on Feb. 9.

But that doesn’t mean Christie won’t be blunt with voters.

Brian Raymond, a city councilman from Atwater, Calif., checked in attendees at Sen. Ted Cruz’s election-night party as he waited to hear how the White House hopeful fared in Monday’s Iowa caucuses.

Raymond said he left his family and flew here at his own expense on Saturday because he believes Cruz is a politician who honors the Constitution.

“I’ve been a fan of Sen. Cruz since he was running for Senate,” said the 34-year-old, who also works as a real estate agent. “I followed him in the Senate race, watching what he was saying, watching him actually winning and sticking to what he was saying. He’s a politician I’ve grown to trust and believe in. He’s not afraid to stand up and speak the truth.”

Raymond is staying at Camp Cruz, a former college dorm near the Des Moines airport that houses volunteers from around the nation. Their days have been filled with volunteering at Cruz events, door-knocking and “lots of phone calls,” he said. “Just whatever they’ve been asking for, we’ve been doing.”

He’s not the only Golden State politician who went to Iowa. Melanie Mason wrote about state Assemblyman Matthew Harper’s weekend in Iowa helping Cruz earlier today.

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Caucus chairman Jeffrey Goetz.

(Kate Linthicum / Los Angeles Times)

Unlike primaries, voters don’t actually cast ballots in the Iowa Democratic caucus. Instead, they stand in groups based on their preferred candidate and are hand-counted by the caucus organizers.

It’s a human process. Which means sometimes it doesn’t work.

At Merrill Middle School in Des Moines, where a record 667 voters turned up to caucus, organizers spent about half an hour counting voters. But when they finished, they had a problem. When added up, the numbers of supporters for Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley totaled much higher than the number of people in the room.

Caucus chairman Jeffrey Goetz was sheepish. “We’re going to have to count again,” he said.

(Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

Hillary Clinton jumped out to the lead in early results from Iowa’s precinct caucuses Monday night, based on strong support from older Democrats, self-described moderates and those who put a priority on a nominee with the experience to be president.

As the official results rolled in, a poll of voters entering the evening’s caucuses provided a picture of what went into their decision-making. Clinton had a huge margin among those Democrats -- about 3 in 10 -- who said their biggest concern about a nominee was having the right experience. By contrast, her rival for the nomination, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, led strongly among those whose top priority was a president who “cares about people like me” or was “honest and trustworthy,” according to the entrance poll.

Among the group who said experience was the top priority, Clinton won by roughly 10 to 1, according to the entrance poll, which was conducted for a consortium of television networks and the Associated Press. She also won heavily among a smaller group who said their top priority was to pick the nominee who could win the general election in November.

Sanders, by contrast, led by 68% to 27% among the roughly one-quarter of Democrats who said they were most concerned about having a nominee who cares about people like them. He had an even larger edge among another quarter of Democrats who said their top priority was a nominee who was “honest and trustworthy.”

Reflecting Sanders’ campaign emphasis, the senator led by about 2 to 1 among those caucus voters who said the most important issue to them was income inequality. Clinton, by contrast, won among those who said their top concern was healthcare or the economy.

Sanders, an independent, was leading by about 70% to 30% among those voters who identified themselves as independents. He also led among voters who identified themselves as “very liberal” and among those younger than 45.

By contrast, Clinton was winning among self-identified Democrats, as well as voters who identified themselves as “somewhat liberal” or “moderate” and those 45 and older, the entrance poll found.

Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, showed up Monday evening at a caucus precinct in West Des Moines, where he delivered brief remarks that touched on popular themes from his stump speech.

“We’ve made so many bad decisions; look at the Iran deal we just made,” he said. “We get nothing.”

Trump, wearing a red tie, vowed to the attendees that should he become president he will crack down on illegal immigration – a key pillar to his campaign.

“We’re going to strengthen our borders, we’re going to build a wall – Mexico is going to pay for it,” he said. “Believe me, they’re going to pay for it.”

Trump added, “We’re going to take our country back,” a line that drew strong applause from caucus attendees.

Just a handful of tallies are in, but they are notable as the first votes of the 2016 primary season. Follow along with The Times here for live results from the Iowa caucuses.

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Maggie Norland might end up one of the most popular people in the room tonight.

A Martin O’Malley backer, she knows her long-shot candidate for the Democratic nomination may not earn enough support at her caucus site at a Des Moines middle school to be considered “viable.”

Thanks to the quirks of the Iowa caucus process, if a candidate does not get the backing of 15% of the voters in a precinct, he or she is deemed not “viable,” and their supporters have 30 minutes to move on to a second choice, or go home, though that’s considered bad form.

So a determination of a lack of viability often unleashes a mad dash of lobbying as backers of the other candidates try to draw the newly available voters to their side.

“I’m kind of excited to be fought over,” said Norland. “And I’m interested to hear what the other sides have to say.”

Hundreds of people have crowded into Merrill Middle School for the caucus. At first blush, it looks like the room was about evenly divided by supporters for front-runners Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

Caucus chair Jeffrey Goetz implored caucusgoers to “be neighborly” and give up chairs to those who need them.

It’s unclear whether that neighborly attitude will last through the night.

Entrance polls of voters joining the Iowa caucus sites put Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the lead, a potential early view of voter preferences.

On the Democratic side, Clinton led with 50% over Bernie Sanders at 44%, according to CNN, which was part of a consortium of TV networks and the Associated Press that commissioned the poll.

First-time Democratic voters were favoring Sanders by 59%, compared with 38% for Clinton, making their turnout critical for the senator from Vermont, according to Fox News.

Among Republicans, billionaire Trump held the lead, at 27% support, with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) almost tied at 22% and 21%, respectively, CNN said.

Republicans also registered a spike in evangelical voters, 62%, over 2012 when those voters made up 56% of caucusgoers. Republican candidates have fought hard for those voters, who were splitting their support with 26% for Cruz, 24% Trump and 21% Rubio.

The entrance poll surveyed voters as they entered 40 sites in Iowa, according to Fox.

As Hillary Clinton’s team set the stage for her caucus-night rally on Drake University’s campus, scores of students lined up to enter a caucus site just a couple blocks away.

Kori Ponder, 19, said she was still undecided.

“I’m just trying to weigh how this is going to go,” she said.

She was with four classmates -- two for Sanders, two for Clinton.

Abbi Nelson, 20, was going to back Clinton, saying Sanders lacked the necessary experience.

“She has supporting facts for what she says. I love Bernie. I love what he says. But I don’t think he has anything to back it up.”

Rachael Demaree, 19, was undeterred and was planning to support Sanders.

“I’m personally about as far left as you can get,” she said, adding that Sanders was tackling problems with capitalism head-on.

“No one else is addressing those issues,” she said.

Donald Trump has been playing Adele’s 2011 hit, “Rolling in the Deep,” at rallies in Iowa. But the presidential candidate doesn’t have permission to use the song, Adele’s spokesperson told Buzzfeed.

Trump isn’t the only candidate to have used an Adele song while campaigning. Last week, Mike Huckabee parodied the singer’s “Hello.” Due to copyright infringement, the song was muted, and has since been removed entirely.

(Charles Krupa / Associated Press )

The Iowa caucuses had not yet even begun before Jeb Bush launched the first salvo of the eight-day fight to come as Republicans battle for victory in the New Hampshire primary.

To a modest standing room-only crowd here, the former Florida governor predicted that Iowans would choose someone who is “insulting his way to the presidency” -- Donald Trump -- and two “backbenchers” - Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio -- “that have not done anything of consequence.”

Given the failures of President Obama, the stakes were high and required more than that, Bush said.

“Maybe what we need is someone who can lead, someone who has a proven record,” he said.

Bush, who entered the race as a front-runner but has faded badly in polls, needs a strong performance in New Hampshire to keep his candidacy alive. But he told voters here that as the focus turns to the Granite State, the “reset” had begun.

“Next Tuesday we’re going to surprise the world,” he said.

In Iowa, celebrities are out in full force to campaign for their favorite presidential candidates. Bernie Sanders’ and Hillary Clinton’s famous supporters have most notably taken to Instagram and Snapchat while visiting the Hawkeye state.

It was a family affair at the Des Moines headquarters of Democratic presidential hopeful Martin O’Malley on Monday, just a few hours before Iowans headed out to caucus.

Jack, the 13-year-old son of the former Maryland governor, was furiously dialing voters, imploring them in his young voice to stand with his father.

Another son, 18-year-old Will, had just returned from a long day of campaign stops with his father and two sisters.

Meanwhile, Bridget Hunter, O’Malley’s sister, was taking care of less glamorous work around the office.

“I’ve cleaned bathrooms,” she said. “And I fixed the toilet twice.”

Hunter has been volunteering on her brother’s political campaigns since 1990. She said she and the rest of the family have been disappointed by O’Malley’s poor showing in polls — the latest Des Moines Register survey shows him trailing front-runners Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders badly, with just 3% of voter support.

But Hunter said she thinks voters may end up proving pollsters wrong. “Iowa surprises people,” she said.

That was the message O’Malley himself had for volunteers when he stopped at headquarters.

Standing on a chair as supporters chanted his name, O’Malley acknowledged that he faces a daunting challenge. But he repeated a now-common refrain.

“The tough fights are the ones that are actually worth fighting,” he told supporters.

His son Will looked on, smiling.

“He’s done such an amazing job throughout the course of this campaign,” he said.

Will admitted that the campaign has been stressful at times, in part because it overlapped with his college-application process.

“But whatever happens,” he said, “it’s been a great experience.”

Amanda Kreglow and Mary Murray Shelton of Santa Rosa were stunned when they received a phone call from a Hillary Clinton staffer last week offering to fly them to Iowa to meet the presidential candidate and her husband, the former president.

“We actually called the campaign to find out if it was a scam,” said Murray Shelton, a 62-year-old minister and author.

After they learned that the call was legitimate, they rose at 1:45 a.m. Sunday, drove to San Francisco and flew to Des Moines. They attended a Clinton rally Sunday at Lincoln High School here.

“It was so fun,” said Kreglow, 67, an author and choreographer. “It was absolutely packed. What’s fun is getting to know the people around you because you’re there for hours. You start talking to people, and all the sudden, you’re best buddies.”

After the rally, the couple was ushered backstage to meet the Clintons.

“I was a little gobsmacked shaking hands with President Clinton,” Murray Shelton said.

Hillary Clinton greeted them with a hug.

“Hilary was really amazing. She’s quite clear and strong and powerful,” Kreglow said.

Both women are long-time Clinton supporters, though they did vote for President Obama in the 2008 California primary. They are convinced that Clinton’s experience as secretary of State and senator are crucial for the nation’s future and fear that her Democratic rival Bernie Sanders would not be able to accomplish anything.

“I’m a little bit concerned that maybe Bernie Sanders is not going to be able to get people to collaborate with him, which means he won’t be able to advance his ideas,” Murray Shelton said. “Hillary has experience doing that already. She doesn’t back off, she stays in the conversation and she keeps negotiating.”

The couple plans to attend a private reception and Clinton’s caucus-night party Monday before flying back to California on Tuesday. They marveled at the access that Iowans get to presidential candidates, which rarely happens in California.

“No one wants to come to wine country? What’s the matter with them?” Kreglow joked.

(Mary Altaffer / AP)

Sarah Palin blasted one of Ted Cruz’s top Iowa supporters Monday for suggesting she’d sold her endorsement to Donald Trump, saying Rep. Steve King must be “huffin’ ethanol” in a cornfield.

In remarks introducing Trump at his last rally before the Iowa caucuses, Palin said King’s accusation was an example of why politics is “a dirty business because people will say things that they know are untrue.” She described King as a “friend of mine – I thought.”

“Why would a good conservative guy like Steve King from the heartland of America want to say something that he knows isn’t true?” she said.

In an MSNBC interview Monday, King, a Republican congressman from socially conservative northwest Iowa, said Palin was more closely aligned ideologically with Cruz than with Trump. Cruz and Trump are the top two Republican contenders for president in the Iowa caucuses Monday night.

“I don’t know very many people who have been able to say no to Donald Trump,” King said when asked why Palin would back the New York billionaire. “He has a massive amount of assets and resources that he can deploy when it comes time to convince someone.”

Four decades ago, Des Moines started building a series of skywalks connecting downtown buildings, and today there are four miles of corridors above the city’s streets.

On Monday afternoon, with the country’s entire political establishment riveted by the Iowa caucuses, some Iowans traversing the skywalks said they were planning to stay home.

Katie Fenn, a 43-year-old paralegal who generally votes Republican, said she’s never gone to a caucus and doesn’t plan to start now.

“There’s several [candidates] that I like, but none I want to argue for,” she said.

Tracy Genger, a 51-year-old Democrat, also plans to sit out the caucuses even as Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are locked in a closely watched battle for Iowa.

“I don’t have a strong feeling about any of them,” said Genger, an IT worker. “If it was easy like voting, I might be willing to do that.”

When the results are finally tallied on Monday night, only a relatively small number of people will have participated in the closely watched beginning of the presidential nominating process.

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush speaks at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa, February 1, 2016, ahead of the Iowa Caucus.

(Jim Watson / AFP-Getty Images)

For months, Jeb Bush signaled he intended to compete aggressively in Iowa. Allies spent millions here backing his bid.

This afternoon, however, hours before the caucuses began, the former Florida governor made plans to fly out of Iowa -- a tacit acknowledgement that he does not expect to have a good night in the first presidential nominating contest in the nation.

Supporters here say that Bush’s chances were derailed by Donald Trump consuming all the oxygen in the campaign.

“Trump unfortunately controlled the debates and I don’t think some of the other candidates got to explain their ideas,” said Carol Kent, 71, after attending a Bush rally here Monday afternoon.

Still, Kent plans to caucus for Bush on Monday night.

“I like his family; I like what he did in Florida,” said the Des Moines resident. “I think he has a good record and I think he’s a strong man.”

Bush railed against Trump during his final Iowa rally, calling him a blowhard and questioning Trump’s knowledge. He noted that Trump was asked about the nuclear triad during a debate and appeared not to know what it was. (It’s the three ways nuclear weapons can be deployed – air, sea and land.)

“There are some threshold questions a candidate should be able to answer to give you a little comfort – that would be one of them,” Bush told a few hundred people in a hotel ballroom.

Tom Youngwirth, a 49-year-old electrician who attended the rally, agreed. Trump “seems pretty erratic and unpredictable,” said the Urbandale resident.

Although he likes Bush, Youngwirth said he is likely supporting Sen. Ted Cruz in the caucuses.

“Trump kinda scares me,” Youngwirth said. “Cruz wouldn’t be my first choice otherwise, but I think he has the closest chance of beating Trump.”

Hours before the Iowa caucuses kick off, thousands of campaign workers fanned out across the state, knocked on doors and made phone calls in hopes of winning over even one more vote.

Hillary Clinton volunteer Jennifer Rusk was deployed to the Des Moines suburb of Clive. She carried a clipboard with a list of the addresses of voters who had indicated that they would likely support Clinton. Her job: make sure those voters knew where to caucus that night, and get them to promise to show up.

“We’re just touching as many people as we can today,” she said.

A Des Moines native who spent the last month volunteering for Clinton, Rusk said she had spotted several Bernie Sanders campaign volunteers in the same neighborhood doing the same thing.

“We’re overlapping,” she said, with just a hint of displeasure.

The sun was out, melting snow leftover from last week. The warm weather and clear sky belied another snowstorm expected to wallop Iowa late Monday night.

Rusk said she didn’t expect the storm to affect caucus turnout. Iowans are used to snow, she said, and the sunny day was putting people in a good mood.

“I actually think the weather is going to play in our favor, “ she predicted.

Cathleen Decker and I experimented this morning with a podcast, inspired by (and with a technical assist from) our colleague Sacramento bureau chief John Myers, whose California Politics Podcast has been going strong for years.

Let us know what you think.

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According to Facebook’s policy communications team, presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is currently leading the conversation in Iowa on the social network. Data was pulled from midnight CST until 12 p.m. CST.

Here’s the breakdown:

• Bernie Sanders: 42.2%
  
• Donald Trump: 21.7%
  
• Hillary Clinton: 13.1%
  
• Ted Cruz: 10.7%
  
• Rand Paul: 4.7%
  
• Ben Carson: 2.6%
  
• Marco Rubio: 1.9%
  
• Martin O’Malley: < 1%
  
• Mike Huckabee: < 1%
  
• Chris Christie: < 1%
  
• Rick Santorum: < 1%
  
• Carly Fiorina: < 1%
  
• Jeb Bush: < 1%
  
• John Kasich: < 1%
  
• Jim Gilmore: < 1%
  

And when it comes to just those vying for the Democratic nomination:

• Bernie Sanders: 73%
  
• Hillary Clinton: 25%
  
• Martin O’Malley: 1%

Trump is leading the conversation among Republican candidates, with 50%, followed by Cruz with 23%.

Caucus results will start to roll in at about 5:30 p.m. PST. Follow along here.

(Christina House / For the Los Angeles Times)

For the next few hours, Iowa will constitute the center of the American political universe. Before the state recedes back into normality, it’s worth focusing on the oddity of its prominence.

Iowa has just over 3.1 million residents, of whom somewhere between 120,000 and 140,000 are expected to show up for Monday night’s Republican caucuses. With multiple candidates splitting the vote, winning the GOP caucuses likely will require about 46,000 voters.

In other words, the winner of the Iowa GOP caucus will have mustered an army just about the size of the average attendance at a Dodgers game last season, or roughly 1.5% of Iowa’s population.

The Democratic winner will have somewhat more backers since only two candidates will be splitting most of the pie, but as a fraction of the state’s residents, the draw will remain tiny.

So why does such a small crowd get so much attention? That’s a question political activists in bigger states routinely ask, often in aggrieved tones.

Some combination of tradition and convenience provides the answer. The nominating process has to start somewhere, and the consensus in both parties has long held that the opening rounds should take place in small states. Starting in a mega-state such as California or Florida would put an even bigger premium on huge amounts of cash, eliminating the remaining possibility of a candidate starting with modest resources and catching fire with voters.

Other small states, of course, would be happy to step in, something that officials in Iowa and New Hampshire, the other first-in-the-nation state, stay constantly on guard against.

Democrats, in particular, fret about the unrepresentative nature of the two states’ electorates, both overwhelmingly white. In recent election cycles, South Carolina and Nevada have taken place in line just after Iowa and New Hampshire, providing two states whose Democratic electorates include large numbers of black and Latino voters, respectively.

But any move to take away Iowa and New Hampshire’s early slots would run into a big problem: The Democratic and Republican national committees, which actually set the rules for primaries, don’t want to have to pick an order every four years and referee the endless disputes doing so would engender. For now, at least, the status quo, however odd, seems fairly safe.

(J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

Speaking to reporters at the Capitol, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) was leery of reading too much into who wins in Iowa.

“It’s not over yet. New Hampshire and the others probably have mattered more for who the Republican nominee is than Iowa. The field is probably going to begin to narrow; it’s going to become pretty competitive,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy hasn’t yet endorsed a presidential candidate.

McCarthy smiled at a question of whether a Sen. Ted Cruz or Donald Trump nomination could hurt Republicans’ chances of holding a majority in the House come November. Republicans currently hold a historic majority — 246 of 435 seats.

“I trust the American people. I think they’ll get it right,” he said. “This is a very different political climate year, and nobody can predetermine who is going to come out and no one can predetermine whether someone helps or someone hurts.”

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(Mary Altaffer / Associated Press)

Businesswoman turned presidential candidate Carly Fiorina recently recalled the beginning of her campaign last spring.

“No one knew who I was. No one had ever heard my name,” the Republican told several dozen people at a photography exhibit here. “The pundits wrote me off ... but the people of Iowa showed up in dining rooms, living rooms and restaurants, and you listened.

“And I’m here to tell you … on Monday we’re going to surprise people here in Iowa and we’re going to leave here with the wind at our back.”

It’s an optimistic assessment that clashes hard with the reality on the ground.

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The Iowa caucuses are complicated.

Mark Z. Barabak breaks them down here, but if you want an even simpler, sweeter explanation, check out our video.

Who says covering politics can’t be fun? Here’s a behind the scenes peek at the making of our video:

(Dave Weaver / Associated Press)

They’re not as straightforward as a primary or a general election. Learn why:

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Results will stream in live as they’re tallied.

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Ohio Gov. John Kasich campaigns Sunday in New Hampshire.

(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

John Kasich has had New Hampshire all to himself during the last few days, as the other presidential candidates fight for prominence in Iowa.

On Saturday, the Ohio governor held three town halls. On Sunday, two. On Monday, he has three events scheduled -- and then he’ll have company in the first primary state as the rest of the field begins to stream in.

Kasich is one of a tightly bunched group of Republican candidates seeking to appeal to voters more aligned with the party’s establishment wing -- which is to say, the wing of the party that’s had the most trouble with voters this election cycle.

He and his allies are airing ads in New Hampshire that tout his tenure in Ohio and criticize former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Bush and his allies are hitting back at Kasich and at Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

Even getting this far is a victory for Kasich. His first campaign for president, a rollicking venture for the then-congressman, died six months before the first voting took place in 2000, a victim of his youth and the dominance that year of George W. Bush. (Here’s a look at him from 1999.)

Political ambition rarely sleeps, so now Kasich is back, hoping that movement will turn into momentum.

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John Kasich in Rochester, N.H., on Monday morning.

(Jim Cole / AP)

While Iowa prepares to caucus, a gubernatorial primary is about to break out in New Hampshire.

Three of the Republican presidential candidates -- Ohio Gov. John Kasich, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush – will end their day in the nation’s first primary state rather than wait around for results in Iowa.

Bush and Christie will both head to New Hampshire this afternoon; Kasich arrived in the state days ago. Their travel plans represent an acknowledgment that none has much at stake in Iowa, but that all three must finish strong here in eight days for their candidacies to continue on.

Christie will hold two town hall meetings Monday, in Hopkinton and Nashua. Bush will do the same in Manchester this evening. And Kasich is holding his 87th, 88th and 89th town hall meetings of the 2016 cycle across the state, after a weekend in which he was the only major candidate here.

Given his limited resources, New Hampshire was the better bet, Kasich told reporters.

“The challenge of Iowa is, there’s five media markets, and in order to go from city to city you have to fly,” he said. “When I go from city to city or community to community I take a bus in New Hampshire.

“There’s 1.3 million people. I’ve met all of them twice. I only have three more times to go,” he joked.

Christie, appearing on MSNBC on Monday morning from Iowa, said his goal in both states is simply to be “the number one governor.”

“It’s who we beat, who’s behind us that matters the most because that will help us consolidate support and money and all the rest,” he said.

A new University of Massachusetts-Lowell tracking poll in New Hampshire showed a tight race among those governors – Kasich and Bush at 9%, Christie at 7%. That’s far behind front-runner Donald Trump, who was at 38%.

David Axelrod would know. Before helping elect President Obama in 2008, the Democratic strategist was a longtime political writer for the Chicago Tribune.

So he’s done plenty of waiting here in the Hawkeye State.

And, Axelrod might have noted, there is plenty of time to fill the idle hours with fantastical scenarios while an adrenaline-addled press corps waits for results. (There is, though, that 140-character limit on Twitter.)

A favorite target is the scheming-caucus strategy, wherein candidates throw votes to a much weaker rival to deny support to their main opponent.

Some explanation: A Democrat must win at least 15% support at a caucus. If he or she fails to reach that threshold, then his or her supporters must back another candidate or go home.

Much of the focus in recent days has been on backers of former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who seems likely to fall short of the 15% minimum in many, if not most, precincts. In the bars of Des Moines and other places that political hacks gather, there is whispering of Hillary Clinton supporters throwing votes to O’Malley to keep him viable and stop his supporters from backing her main rival, Bernie Sanders.

Some cite 2008 and a supposed Obama-John Edwards cabal that forced Clinton into a humiliating third-place Iowa finish, from which she never really recovered.

Asked about the strategy Monday, Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, coyly refused to rule out such mischief.

“Each precinct is going to be different,” he said on CNN. “We’ve got leaders trained to know what do to.”

Smart Iowa Democrats, though, call the bank-shot, boost-a-rival strategy the political equivalent of an urban legend, which is not to say it may not happen somewhere, sometime, especially in a precinct with a savvy campaign chair.

But we’ve previously written extensively about the myth of the strategic voter; most peoplesimply don’t act and think the way calculating political strategists and campaign junkies do.

The bottom line: Whoever loses Iowa may cite conspiratorial voting and other dark reasons for their defeat. But that doesn’t make them true.

Some of Chris Christie’s best-known moments have come when the impassioned New Jersey governor battles a questioner at one of his raucous town hall events.

But on Monday morning, hours before the Iowa caucuses, he held his fire when a man in the audience started to try to draw him into a debate over foreign policy.

“I am a man who is very mellow today,” Christie joked. “I am a guy who is feeling extraordinarily zen.”

Christie was speaking at Drake University’s law school during one of his final campaign stops in Iowa before he heads to New Hampshire, where he’ll hold an event during Monday night’s caucuses.

“It’s game time. When game time, comes you want real players on the field. Not showboats,” he said, a reference not only to Donald Trump but also to Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, whom Christie has portrayed as insufficiently experienced.

Christie was joined by Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, a longtime ally. It wasn’t an official endorsement -- Branstad is also appearing with Jeb Bush on Monday -- but he praised Christie’s record.

“He’s a great team player; he’s a heckuva hard worker,” Branstad said.

Christie is not expected to finish near the top in Iowa, where the race has been dominated by Trump and Cruz. The more important test will come next in New Hampshire’s primary Feb. 9. The state tends to support more moderate Republicans, and Christie has invested more time there in hopes of boosting his candidacy.

Hillary Clinton delivers doughnuts to campaign workers Monday in Des Moines.

(Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

Predictably, the morning theme on caucus day is coffee and doughnuts. Hillary and Chelsea Clinton brought a bunch of both to volunteers at her Des Moines field office around 9:30 a.m.

“I had to stop by and tell you how much I appreciate your hard work,” Clinton told volunteers, remarking that the campaign had knocked on 186,000 doors in the last three days.

A bunch of selfies were snapped, books were signed, and a Snapchat moment with a couple of girls was produced. “I’m feeling so energized,” Clinton said.

Here’s Clinton making the order. Doughnut diplomacy in action:

Sarah Palin returned to Iowa on Monday to campaign for Donald Trump, but wound up in a spat with morning television anchors over the domestic violence arrest of her son.

“You guys brought me here to talk about Iowa politics and the caucus tonight, not to talk about my kids,” Palin said, after anchor Savannah Guthrie on NBC’s “Today” asked Palin about linking her combat veteran son’s arrest to what she portrayed as President Obama’s neglect of the military.

“And that was a promise. But as things go, in the world of media, you guys don’t always keep your promises, evidently.”

Palin’s son, Track, was arrested on domestic violence charges Jan. 19, the same day that his mother endorsed Trump in Iowa. At a rally with Trump the next day in Tulsa, Okla., Palin said her son had returned from the Iraq war “hardened.” She lamented the widespread post-traumatic stress syndrome among veterans and accused President Obama of neglecting the military.

“I never blamed President Obama” for her son’s situation, Palin told NBC in an interview that grew increasingly testy.

Anchor Matt Lauer asked Palin whether she regretted her remarks in Tulsa. Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, asked what was offensive about her comments.

“You seemed to lay it at the feet of the president,” Lauer responded.

“I don’t regret any comment that I made, because I didn’t lay PTSD at the foot of the president,” Palin said. “I did say, though, that there is – and suggested very adamantly – that there is much more that our commander in chief could do to prove that he respects our troops and to let them do their job. But no, if you guys have a specific quote, it allows the media to be more credible if you guys will tell me exactly what you’re talking about. And then I can address that specific sentence.”

“In terms of credibility,” Lauer said, “I just want to make sure, there were no specific promises about content of the interview, only that this would be your first interview since you endorsed Donald Trump.”

Palin disagreed.

“I was told that this interview was about the caucus tonight in Iowa,” she said, “and right on, who will it be to put America on the right track and restore constitutional government that we are lacking today, that we so need, and I said right on, let me go talk about that. Sure.”

Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination, plans to campaign with Palin on Monday afternoon in Cedar Rapids. It is his last scheduled public event before the Iowa caucuses Monday night. Before the topic of her son’s arrest was broached, Palin sought to reassure evangelical voters that they could trust Trump.

“I hope voters aren’t trying to find the most Christian-y, godliest candidate out there, because who are we to judge one another’s level of faith, our Christian quote, quotient, if you will,” she said. “Hopefully people are looking for he who has that record of success that proves he’s going to be able to get the job done for us, finally.”

(Andrew Burton / Getty Images)

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders reiterated their campaign promises Monday in their final rounds of reaching out to voters before the Iowa caucuses in a tight race.

Clinton, seeking an edge, cited her experience as secretary of State, senator and even first lady.

“I think I have the record, the experience, the know-how to get it done,” she told NBC’s “Today.”

“I think it’s important for me to tell voters what I want to achieve and how I will go about doing that,” she added. “I want them to hold me accountable.”

As for Sanders, his wife, Jane, defended her husband’s experience as sufficient.

“His ideas are the same as the ideas of the American people,” she said on CNN’s “New Day.” “The ideas are mainstream. There’s nothing radical about him.”

She urged voters to cast ballots for him, explaining that he has lost elections before because supporters believed he couldn’t win and didn’t vote.

Hours before Iowa voters gathered to caucus, candidates demurred on making predictions Monday morning, even the usually boastful Donald Trump.

Trump took an uncharacteristically cautious tone in an interview with NBC and refused to say who he thought voters would choose. He said all of his Republican rivals threaten his chances, though he and several other candidates spent the morning attacking Ted Cruz specifically — again.

“We’ve had the biggest crowds, bigger than anybody. I just don’t know,” Trump said of his prediction on NBC’s “Today.” “I can’t tell you that I think so.”

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio went after both Trump and Cruz, who lead in most polls in Iowa. Rubio said called Cruz “disingenuous” and dismissed Trump as just an “entertainer” but said he was focused on his own efforts.

“We’re not the front-runner in Iowa. But we feel good about our campaign, we know it’s an uphill climb,” Rubio said.

Rubio referred to a recent TV ad in which Cruz’s campaign slammed him for supposedly supporting a cap-and-trade measure. Rubio called it another moment of dishonesty for Cruz, saying the video was distorted to fit his message.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul piled on, calling Trump a narcissist and saying he fears Trump is the worst candidate for the Republican Party.

“There is a narcissism about him that believes he can fix things and he just needs power,” Paul said on CNN’s “New Day.” “I think it’s more about power with him and that worries me because I don’t know what his philosophy is other than him-first.”

Results are expected to start coming in around 9 p.m. CST Monday.

(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The choices that Iowa voters make in Monday’s caucus will set the tone for the rest of the 2016 presidential race. As Hillary Clinton learned after her finishing third here in 2008, underperforming in Iowa can doom a campaign. Alternatively, as President Obama proved that year, a win can create serious momentum.

This year, as Clinton pursues the Democratic nomination once again and Donald Trump seeks to upend the Republican Party, voter turnout will be essential on both sides. And as always with Iowa in the winter, keep an eye on the weather. Here are five things to watch as the results come in Monday night:

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As a teenager before he was even allowed to vote, Charlie Comfort organized for then-Sen. Barack Obama in his hometown of Oskaloosa, Iowa.

Now he’s a Republican.

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The quirkiest and most unpredictable presidential race in decades has raised many questions: about the depth and duration of voter anger, about the power of insurgency and whether the old ways of campaigning and thinking of politics no longer hold true.

Some answers may finally begin to emerge Monday night here in Iowa, when voters will cast the first ballots of the 2016 campaign in a series of precinct-level meetings, or caucuses.

There are fiercely competitive contests on both sides.

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(Jim Watson / AFP/Getty Images)

A few hours after Bernie Sanders announced that he was running for president, a group of activists associated with Occupy Wall Street sent an email blast endorsing his candidacy.

The activists quickly went to work for Sanders in early primary states and online, where one Occupy organizer coined the #FeelTheBern hashtag that became the campaign’s de facto slogan.

In Iowa this week, former Occupy protesters could be found easily among Sanders’ volunteers, knocking on doors and dialing voters to drive Sanders supporters to Monday’s caucuses.

But their most significant contribution to the Vermont senator’s rapid rise may have been their protest’s message.

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