Presidential hopefuls brace for Iowa caucus

Update, 10:27 p.m. Monday: 

With 83 percent of precincts reporting the results of their Democratic caucuses, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has closed the gap between himself and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with Sanders receiving 49.2 percent of the votes and Clinton receiving 50.1 percent. 

Former Gov. Martin O'Malley is sitting at 0.5 percent and announced he will suspend his presidential campaign. 

With 84 percent of precincts reporting the results of their Republican caucuses, Sen. Ted Cruz won the Republican Iowa caucus with 28 percent, with Donald Trump and Sen. Marco Rubio close behind at 24.4 percent and 23 percent, respectively. Dr. Ben Carson is hovering around 10 percent, and all other candidates are in the low single digits.  

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Citizens across the Hawkeye State will gather in school gymnasiums and rec center basements to take the first step in determining the nominees for President of the United States today.

Polls indicate a tight race at the top in both parties, with the gap between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton within the margin of error, and the gap between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz close to it.

Because polls for the caucus remain close, political experts disagree on who will come out victorious. Geoffrey Skelley, a political analyst at the UVa. Center for Politics, said Trump and Clinton were the modest favorites of the event while Christopher Clark, a political science professor, is less sure. 

“It’s within the margin of error, we can’t count anyone out," he said. 

Iowa is unique in that it does not have primaries, but party-specific caucuses. Republican caucus-goers will be met by presidential campaign representatives delivering platform speeches. They will then be asked to write down their votes on papers which will be tallied.

The Democratic caucus is trickier, where supporters are physically separated by candidate. If a candidate does not receive support from 15 percent of the overall number of individuals in the room, his or her supporters are dismissed, and the remaining candidates’ delegations will attempt to lobby them to join up until eventually a majority winner emerges.

Clark said Iowa has a different level of importance to the two parties. 

 “Iowa will be much more important for the Republicans… they’ll have a chance to weed some folks out (from) a crowded field," he said. 

Skelley said winning Iowa could substantially help a candidate. 

“Doing well in Iowa is an opportunity to boost your credibility nationally, and falling short of expectations can cause doubts about your candidacy," he said. 

Skelley said this phenomenon influences media frenzy over the results, which he calls the media spectacle of Iowa. 

"Positive or negative, the spectacle matters," he said. "Iowa does not have predictive power, but the results there certainly go a long way to determining who our next president will be."

state@dailytarheel.com