Wapello, Iowa - About 2,000 people live in this speck of a town in rural southeast Iowa. And roughly one-quarter of them showed up to a plastics warehouse on a frigid Friday night to hear Texas Sen. Ted Cruz make his best pitch for the White House.
Presidential candidates have crisscrossed the state for months to woo voters willing to spend hours on Monday caucusing for them. But even in Iowa, this riverside hamlet is off the beaten trail. And the voters who gathered here showed their appreciation by pledging their loyalty to Cruz and his take-no-prisoners style.
“He’s got a backbone, and that’s what I love about him,” said Tammy Payne, who signed up to be a first-time caucus captain for Cruz. “The country is going down the wrong track. We’re in debt. We’re in trouble. And he can fix it.”
The battle for Iowa voters has been a race to the flanks of both parties. And the decisions that Payne and her neighbors make on Monday could hold clues to how Georgians might cast their ballots when they head to the polls March 1.
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