Sen. Tim Scott’s presidential campaign is going “all-in” on the Iowa caucuses as his White House bid struggles to gain momentum nationally among Republicans.
Scott’s campaign said it will shift resources from New Hampshire to Iowa, doubling its staff in Iowa and opening new headquarters in West Des Moines. It also plans to spend more on advertising ahead of the first-in-the-nation caucus on Jan. 15, according to a campaign statement.
“Tim Scott is all-in on Iowa,” campaign manager Jen DeCasper said in a statement Monday. “No other candidate has the resources, the foundation of support and the message to be successful in the Hawkeye State.”
The campaign’s new focus on Iowa was first reported by the Des Moines Register.
The campaign’s revised strategy will bring Scott back to Iowa every week in the lead-up to the caucuses. Scott on Tuesday will conclude a five-day tour of the state.
But the move also underscores faltering aspects of the South Carolina Republican’s campaign. His numbers have plateaued in both early state and national polls, the main super PAC supporting him recently canceled its planned fall ad buy and concerns persist about whether he can meet the polling threshold to qualify for the next Republican debate.
A new national poll conducted by USA Today and Suffolk University had Scott tied for fourth place with Vivek Ramaswamy at almost 3% among Republican respondents.
For Scott’s campaign, building momentum among evangelical voters in Iowa deemed “persuadable” may be its best opportunity to prove the viability of his White House bid. In a meeting with donors this month in Dallas, senior campaign officials argued that the “evangelical lane in Iowa is unoccupied,” and positioned the senator as having a better shot than his GOP rivals in appealing to the group, given his high net-favorability rating.
Among likely GOP caucusgoers in Iowa, Scott was second only to former President Donald Trump in favorability, according to an NBC News / Des Moines Register / Mediacom poll. But Scott’s unfavorable numbers were half that of Trump’s.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
