Democrat front-runners in Monday’s Iowa caucuses are making last-minute appeals to candidates who are trailing in the polls to jump ship and come over to their side in the race’s final hours.
A new Monmouth University poll released Wednesday shows former Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders at 23% and 21%, respectively. They're followed by South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg (16%) and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (15%).
The lowest-tier candidates are U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (10%); and Tom Steyer and Andrew Yang, at 4% and 3%, respectively.
About half of likely caucusgoers say they are still open to changing their minds when they show up to caucus on Monday, which is prompting Democrats such as Biden to actively court the lower-polling campaigns such as Steyer.
A Steyer aide told Politico the campaign had been been approached by "multiple candidates."
»MORE: Everything to know about the Iowa caucuses
Biden’s campaign has also reached out to Yang and Klobuchar’s campaign, according to The New York Times.
The caucuses are the Democratic Party’s first nominating contest in the 2020 presidential election.
The old axiom that “there are three tickets out of Iowa” means the top three finishers have the best chance of remaining in the race and making their way to New Hampshire on Feb. 11; the Nevada caucuses on Feb. 22; the South Carolina primary on Feb. 29; and then Super Tuesday on March 3.
The caucuses, which will be held during the evening, are closed, and candidates must meet a viability threshold of 15% within an individual precinct in order to be considered viable.
Unlike a traditional primary, in which voters cast ballots, caucuses take place out in the open. People show up to their precinct and physically move into designated parts of a room to show their preference for a certain candidate. Delegates are awarded based on those who reaches a certain threshold of support by the end of the night.
Republican caucuses will be straightforward, confirming President Donald Trump as their party’s candidate.
»Dates you should know for Election 2020
For Democrats, participants physically divide themselves into their candidates’ groups. This is called the first allocation, and it determines which candidates are viable. Those failing to make the threshold — set at 15% to 25%, depending on precinct size — must then try to win enough new members to keep their candidate viable, join some other candidate’s caucus, become uncommitted, or simply go home.
»MORE: Here’s why Iowa caucuses are so important
Following this one and only round of shuffling, a final allocation tally is taken to determine the number of delegates sent to later county conventions. The “state delegate equivalent” results are used to calculate the number of national delegates each candidate receives; those delegates will go to the national convention.
A Democratic candidate needs 1,991 pledged delegate votes to win the party’s nomination on the first ballot of the convention.
Iowa Democrats are adding several satellite caucuses in nursing homes and union halls in an effort to increase participation. Some of those caucuses are even taking place for Iowans out of state and for Hawkeye State expatriates in cities around the world.
