Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has fallen behind retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson in recent polling in Iowa, asked potential Hawkeye State caucus-goers to help him out a little bit at a rally on Tuesday.
“Iowa, will you get your numbers up, please?” Mr. Trump said at an event in Sioux City. “Will you get these numbers up? I promise you, I will do such a good job.”
“I refuse to say ’get your asses in gear.’ I will not say that,” he said, also joking that if he loses Iowa, “I will never speak to you people again.”
Mr. Trump still retains a lead on the rest of the 2016 GOP field in the latest RealClearPolitics national average and is leading in other early states such as New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Neither of the two most recent Iowa GOP caucus winners — former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania in 2012 and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas in 2008 — went on to become the party’s presidential nominee.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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