WASHINGTON — Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, locked in a tight race with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in Iowa, on Saturday stressed the importance of winning the state that holds the first U.S. nominating contest of the 2016 election season.
“We gotta win Iowa,” Trump told a rally in Ottumwa, Iowa. “We gotta win it. OK, so we’re going to win it, OK? Otherwise, we’re wasting our time, folks.”
Trump told rally attendees in Clear Lake, Iowa, that if he were to win the state, which is the first to vote in the Republican primary, it would set him up to win other states.
“This would get the ball rolling,” Trump said. “If we win Iowa, such a big event for me.”
After leading polls of Iowa Republican voters for months, Trump has fallen into second place behind Cruz in the state, which will hold its contest Feb. 1, followed by New Hampshire Feb. 9.
An Iowa victory for the New York billionaire would be a validation of his insurgent candidacy against a host of establishment Republicans and put him in a strong position for the upcoming contest.
He told voters in Clear Lake that his staff has discouraged him from setting high expectations in Iowa. But he said he is ignoring their advice and continuing to insist he can win the state.
A loss in Iowa, however, would make him vulnerable in New Hampshire, where he leads in the polls, and could jeopardize his candidacy, which is all about stressing the importance of victories.
“We either win or we lose, there’s nothing else. There’s no like, ‘he did a great job,’” he said.