[D]ES MOINES, Iowa — With fresh poll numbers putting Bernie Sanders within a hop of Hillary Clinton in the Hawkeye State, the Vermont senator held nearly a dozen events with caucusgoers over the weekend in hopes of a surprise win here before the presidential primary in New Hampshire, where he holds a slight lead.
“The polls are now showing that we have significant momentum in Iowa, and that we are only a few points behind Secretary Clinton,” Sanders told a crowd here Sunday at a Best Western hotel surrounded by corn fields and grain silos.
“By the end of this campaign here in Iowa, we will have had rallies and held meetings, like this, bringing out some 50,000 Iowans,” he continued. “And I think that’s pretty good, and I think that’s why we are going to win.”
Fresh poll data from NBC News and The Wall Street Journal — which Sanders referenced in every Sunday stop as proof of his electability — has him just 3 points behind Clinton in Iowa, 48 to 45 percent. In New Hampshire, Sanders is leading Clinton, 50 to 46 percent.
The fresh poll data, advisers said, put a smile on Sanders’ face. The Iowa numbers indicate a major rebound from as recently as October, when some surveys had Sanders 38 points behind Clinton.
Each candidate’s lead is within the margin of error for the polls, establishing a statistical tie for the Democratic race in these two crucial early nominating states.
And with both the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary less than a month away, the pressure is on.
In Iowa — which chooses its delegates first, and where Clinton is trying to avoid a loss similar to her embarrassing defeat in 2008 by then-Sen. Barack Obama — the corn is really starting to pop as the race heats up.
“As voters move toward their final choice in Iowa and New Hampshire, it’s clear they are moving heavily to Bernie,” said Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager. “Bernie’s message of taking on a rigged economy that sends most new wealth to the top and is held in place by (a) corrupt system of campaign finance is resonating powerfully with voters all across America.”
Sanders took that message to voters all across Iowa over the weekend, crisscrossing counties for forums focused on issues including paid sick leave, climate change and veterans affairs.
Each night, he held large rallies where he broadly explained his thoughts on a host of issues. The topics he omitted included foreign policy and gun control, a subject that is now the focus of attacks from Team Clinton.
In a rare Sunday morning interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Clinton challenged Sanders’ position that his moderate voting record on guns was a result of his attentive representation of Vermont values.
“The other senator from Vermont, Sen. Leahy, voted with President Obama and myself,” Clinton said, referring to legislation Sanders supported that protects gun manufacturers from criminal liability.
“So, I think that the excuses and efforts by Sen. Sanders to avoid responsibility for this vote, which the NRA hailed as the most important in 20 years, points up a clear difference,” she added.
“I supported the Brady bill,” Clinton later said. “Sen. Sanders voted against it five times. So, there is a very clear difference.”
Sanders defended his record Sunday and said the renewed attacks over gun policy signaled a “panicky Clinton campaign.”
“What happens when suddenly the candidate who was ordained by the establishment to win — who was the undisputed leader — suddenly finds that her position is not quite so strong, you are going to see a lot of political discussion and a lot of attacks taking place,” he said.
Sanders staffers in Iowa credited their comprehensive ground game for their bump in the polls. The campaign recently opened its 27th office, in Pella, and now employs 101 paid staffers.
Sanders also visits the state often and had a packed schedule over the weekend with events morning, noon and night.
Clinton wasn’t in Iowa over the weekend, instead spending her time in California, raising money in Palo Alto and San Francisco, according to her public schedule.
Former President Bill Clinton, who has recently been dispatched on the trail in support of his wife, also attended fundraisers over the weekend in Seattle and in Paradise Valley, Arizona.
Sanders campaign spokesman Michael Briggs said his candidate has held nine fundraisers throughout the campaign, and only two this quarter. The last one, he said, took place in October in Los Angeles.
Briggs said Sanders doesn’t need to host big fundraising events because of his impressive cash hauls online.
“What puts us at an advantage is having two and a half million donations come from more than a million people, most of it online and most under $30, so they can give again,” Briggs said. “Fundraisers take up less of his time (as a result). He doesn’t like doing them anyhow.”
Although the Clintons weren’t in town over the weekend, the campaign dispatched a number of powerful political surrogates, including Lena Dunham, the star and creator of the HBO series “Girls.” Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe was also in Iowa to amp up canvassers.
The Sanders team also has dispatched a number of surrogates over the past few weeks, including progressive columnist Jim Hightower, activist Cornel West and U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, of Minnesota.
Chicago politician Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who mounted a strong challenge to incumbent Rahm Emanuel in the April runoff election for mayor, will be appearing this week, as will former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner, who threw her support behind Sanders after initially endorsing Clinton.
Sanders’ Iowa spokeswoman, Rania Batrice, said plans are in the works to get a few movie stars to the Hawkeye State soon, too.
“As you can imagine, everybody has busy schedules,” she said. “But we are talking to Mark Ruffalo and Susan Sarandon about visiting.”
Sanders ended a big rally in Des Moines on Saturday evening acknowledging that when he announced his campaign on the shores of Lake Champlain, “75 or 80 percent of the people of Iowa didn’t know who Bernie Sanders was, let alone what I stood for.”
“But a lot has happened in the last eight and a half months,” he said.
