As Donald Trump returns to Iowa on Tuesday for the fourth time in less than a month, his campaign is intently focused on turning out supporters who have never attended the state’s caucuses in hopes of building a decisive victory to match his robust lead in the polls.
One of the biggest objectives for the former president, advisers say, is fighting any sense of complacency among supporters who see polls showing him with a 30-point lead less than one month before the Iowa caucuses open the Republican nominating contest.
On each visit, even as he delivers increasingly harsh rhetoric on immigration and more, Trump makes clear that he needs their support.
“Sometimes when you’re leading by a lot, everyone says, ‘Why should I go and vote?’” he told supporters last week in Coralville. “The margin of victory is so important.”
The Trump campaign has its sights set on wrapping up the primary early, with a landslide victory in Iowa and then effectively clinching the nomination by mid-March. To achieve that, the former president’s team has been building a ground operation in the Hawkeye State that is far more organized and targeted than in his 2016 presidential bid, when he finished second in Iowa to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. That narrow defeat, which agitated Trump, drives the mission of a campaign operation that even some of his Republican critics concede is impressive.
The Trump campaign has been focused in recent months on recruiting and training around or close to 2,000 volunteer caucus captains across the state – assigning several to the largest voting locations. Each agrees to get commitments from 10 first-time voters in the Iowa caucuses from a list of 25 prospective supporters the campaign has identified in their neighborhoods.
“Other candidates are betting on turning out existing caucusgoers,” a senior Trump campaign official…
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