Politics & Government
Watch Live Stream: Donald Trump’s Rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa (Updated)
Donald Trump is back in Iowa, a battleground state, on Wednesday afternoon.
COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA — A day after Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump rallied an estimated 15,000 supporters in Florida, he heads to another battleground state, where his Wednesday afternoon appearance in western Iowa will try to galvanize evangelical voters.
Iowa voted for President Barack Obama in the past two presidential contests, but it also has a Republican governor and U.S. senators, and its U.S. House delegates are all Republicans, with one exception. The most recent Real Clear Politics average of polls gives Trump a 5 point lead over Democrat Hillary Clinton in Iowa, 42.8 percent to 37.8 percent.
Trump's Iowa rally will be held at 3 p.m. CST at the Mid America Center Convention Center 1 America Way in Council Bluffs. Doors open at 11:30 a.m., and the program will begin at 2:30 p.m.
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Opponent Clinton will hold a rally in Iowa's largest city and capital, Des Moines, at 12:30 p.m. Thursday in downtown at Cowles Common. Thursday, not coincidentally, is the first day of early voting in Iowa.
Trump has planned a roughly $150 million TV and digital advertising blitz for the last six weeks of the campaign, and more could be spend after a wave of donations on Tuesday following the debate, Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s top fundraiser, told USA Today.
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“When we have days like yesterday, we will either allocate that to get-out-the-vote or additional media,” he said.
Iowa TV viewers had a brief respite from political ads after the Iowa Caucuses, but both campaigns, as well as political action committees that support them, have filled the airwaves for months.
The New York businessman took a victory lap in Florida, even as some GOP analysts gave Clinton the win in the first presidential debate on Monday night. Just how much that first debate appearance will help Trump – or hurt him – in the polls remains unclear. Some post-debate polling gave Clinton a win in Monday night’s debate at New York’s Hofstra University, but several online polls gave the victory to Trump.
Regardless of who “won” the 90-plus-minute debate, the live broadcast gave both candidates a chance to square off on such issues as national security, race relations and the economy. Zingers also erupted as discussion turned to such topics as Trump’s tax returns and Clinton’s deleted emails.
As the candidates duked it out, NBC’s Lester Holt, the debate’s moderator, butted in regularly with “We have to move on” and “your time is up.” Nearly 90 million viewers tuned in across the United States to watch the two presidential candidates spar.
See also: Who Won the Presidential Debate: 5 Key Moments From Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton
As of Tuesday morning, Clinton was ahead in national polls, according to Real Clear Politics. She had a lead on Trump of 2.4 percentage points, which essentially means the race is still neck-and-neck. The data available, however, reflected polls conducted prior to Monday’s debate. Post-debate national polling data is not yet available.
Watch Trump’s rally in Council Bluffs below as soon as it starts:
Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr Commons
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