Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders’ Home Stretch Strategies to Win The Iowa Caucus
— -- As Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders crisscross Iowa in the final stretch before the caucuses, their campaigns are doing everything they can to ensure come Monday, Feb. 1 voters will be standing in their candidates’ corner.
Whether it’s speaking to hundreds - or thousands - of supporters at campaign events, phone banking 12 hours a day, or door knocking in negative temperatures, it’s crunch time in this very tight race.
A Quinnipiac poll released Jan. 12, showed Sanders ahead of Clinton by 5 points in Iowa.
The hawkeye state is divided into 99 counties and spans over 56,000 square miles making the locations where Sanders and Clinton hold their final events strategically important.
According to the Clinton campaign, the former secretary of state is hosting events in areas with a high level of supporters, volunteers and undecided voters.
The Sanders campaign, meanwhile, believes their best strategy is to hold as many events as they can, in as many towns, in order to get Sanders in front of Iowans. “Once people know who he is, we do better,” Sanders’ Iowa campaign coordinator Pete D’Alessandro told ABC News.
Both candidates are leaving the state for roughly 24 hours this week. On Tuesday, Sanders is hosting two rallies in Minnesota – a Super Tuesday state. On Wednesday and Thursday, Clinton is fundraising on the East Coast.
Despite their absence, Sanders and Clinton have each called in impressive reinforcements to keep the momentum going.
Descending on Iowa this week to stump for Clinton: Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards, Sen. Amy Klobochar, Jamie Lee Curtis, Billie Jean King and of course, former president Bill Clinton.
Sanders’ lengthy surrogates list includes Susan Sarandon, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield (of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream fame), Killer Mike, Foster the People, and Erza Koenig & Chris Tomson of Vampire Weekend.
Both campaigns have volunteers from their multiple field offices across the state working 12+ hour shifts – making thousands of phone calls and door knocks each day.
To help voters understand how to participate, team Clinton is circulating a video explainer on "How to Caucus" by using computer generated characters. “It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3!” they write.
The Sanders campaign, which is hoping to mobilize young, first time caucus goers, has also created a video to explain the process.
Their video features Iowa staff and actual volunteers – some of which say they are first time voters – acting out the Democratic caucus process by dividing into groups and debating the issues.
“The establishment doesn’t think we’ll show up on Feb. 1,” supporters say in the video. “In fact, they’re counting on it. Prove them wrong.”
ABC News' MaryAlice Parks contributed to this report.
