Focus at Four: GOP Presidential candidates visit the Iowa State Fair
DES MOINES, Iowa (KBTX) – Republican Presidential hopefuls are converging on the Iowa State Fair to try and persuade voters. News 3′s Washington D.C. Bureau Correspondent Brendan Cullerton joined First News at Four from Des Moines, Iowa to discuss what he is seeing.
Higher-profile candidates like Mike Pence and Ron DeSantis have been holding events across the state, Friday proved to be a beneficial day for lesser-known candidates to share their message at the State Fair.
“There’s this thing called the soapbox. It’s very much a literal soapbox. Candidates get on it and they talk to voters, and some of the candidates kind of behind in the polls behind those big names like your Pence’s like DeSantis and Trump, who’s holding a rally here tomorrow. They’re trying to spread their message to voters and try and make it on that Republican debate stage,” Cullerton reported.
For the most part, events have been cordial, except for former Vice President Mike Pence being called a “traitor” Thursday by a member of the crowd.
“I think it’s important to note, with Trump coming here, the two have really been at odds. Mike Pence kind of is in the crosshairs of Trump supporters over his reluctance to kind of grant the president an additional term back in 2020, people still hold that against him,” Cullerton said.
In order to qualify for the GOP Debate, candidates need 40,000 donors and need to be polling at 1% in either three national polls or early state polls. Candidates are hoping to share their message to get enough donors and polling numbers to qualify.
“I’ll give an example. We just spoke to Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who hit that 1%, that coveted 1%, and in an Iowa poll now, he just needs to shore up those numbers in a couple of other polls by getting his message out at events like this and then they can make it onto that debate stage in 12 days,” Cullerton said.
You can see the full conversation in the video player above.
