announcer: this is a kcci 8 news special. commitment 2016, iowa caucuses live. >> iowa is in the spotlight for today. stacey: right now, all eyes on iowa. steve: after months of stump speeches -- sen. rubio: i will unite the conservative movement. gov. christie: police officers deserve to be supported by a president-elect been in law enforcement. steve: and, debates. ms. clinton: we're getting down

mr. trump: it all doesn't matter if we don't caucus on monday. sen. sanders: we will win the caucus if there is a large voter turnout. stacey: good evening. welcome to caucus coverage on kcci. steve: after months and months of campaigning, it all comes down to tonight. kcci has you covered. our crews are out all across central iowa. we will also be live inside two iowa caucus locations, one for the republicans and one for the democrats. also joining us is kcci political analyst dennis gold four. what are your thoughts as the night gets going? dennis: exhibition season is over. this is opening day for the real presidential race. the big question is what kind of turnout is there going to be? there is a feeling of unease in the country, a dissatisfaction with things that has been expressed by the truck campaign certainly, also by the sanders

will we see a significantly larger than normal turnout tonight? steve: dennis, thank you. we are also going to be taking locations. location. eric hanson's live in america -- at merrill middle school. eric: this is registration process going on in the hallway of merrill middle school. take a look. these are folks registering, signing up for the caucuses. six different tables you are looking at right now of people just in this precinct. this is mostly the water very they protest the waterbury neighborhood as well as the south of grand neighborhood. then, beyond that, at the far end of the hallway, there are

they are expecting more than 1000 people tonight. turnout is something to watch. this picture right now should give you the picture that a lot of people are showing up. let's go around the corner and inside the gymnasium. this is democratic caucus number 62. you walk in the door, there are hillary for president people trying to do some calculations and figure out what is going on. the first person showed up at 4:45 p.m. this afternoon. look at the crowd already, a half-hour before the caucus starts. you can see that most of the hillary for president folks are gathered on this side of the room. most of the burning for president folks on the far end of the room. in the middle, you can see martin o'malley. that is the area that you are going to want to watch. where are the o'malley supporters going to move if they move?

we have crews here from around the world. karen, i wanted to but you for a little bit. we are live on channel 8. why are you backing hillary tonight? >> i think she is the most pragmatic of the candidates. they are all articulate, all idealists, but i think she has some real-life experience. i am very impressed when she held up so well to the grueling congress for hours and hours. eric: when did you decide you want to caucus for hillary? hillary forever. i wanted to keep an open mind. i tried to and i am still

taking time with us. again, a big crowd and they are still coming in. we will be here live the entire night to see what is happening. steve: i do have a question for you. are you seeing any outward signs of support? there is a t-shirt or a button or two. are you maybe getting a sense of support their tonight? eric: the clinton folks have brought people together, and as put a sticker on them. they are all over the place, "i am caucusing for hillary." at the other end, the bernie sanders folks are doing the same thing. once they actually start breaking up into preference groups, there will be some big science. you can see, open -- some big signs. that sign will move out on the floor and then that is when the

we have media crews from around from france, from the middle east, from japan. it is amazing to actually just see the coverage, specifically largest caucus sites in the metro area. we will see what happens in the next half hour. so much. steve: republicans also getting ready to caucus tonight. stacey: kim st. onge is at the ankeny baptist church. kim: people have been filing in for about the past 45 minutes. this is the main sanctuary here at ankeny baptist church. this is where the whole caucus for the republican is going to take place. there are about 350 seats in this main sanctuary. they are expecting up to 450 people here tonight. in 2012, at the same site, they

that is double the amount they saw last caucus. since then, district lines have been redrawn, so that could be a reason. this whole area already packed. people have been filing in. it is a little different. you just heard eric describing the democratic caucus. this one is a lot simpler. if you see any of those pieces of paper, those white slips of paper on it are given those as they walk in. they are going to be listening to a representative from each of the campaigns tonight. each one will be given an opportunity to speak from 2-5 minutes, just the final push. then they just actually write the names of candidates that they want to vote for, folded up, put it in a basket. later tonight, those will be counted. where you are looking right now is the main foyer. this is where people are getting checked in. if you see the farther table on the right side of the screen, that is actually the new voter registration.

independence who want to actually register as a republican tonight, and it also includes people who are democrats and decide to vote republican. there were about 30 of them. since. a lot of new voters that are particular site right now. excitement. actually, the first person who got here arrived at 5:30. he is going to be voting at this precinct but he also happens to be the representative for the truck campaign. a lot of action here. the representatives, like i have been saying, who are going to be speaking, they are expected to take the podium at about 7:00 tonight. if you take a look over here, you might see that whiteboard with some of the names. both of the folks who are going to be representing each candidate, like i said.

everything unfolds. this all starts around 7:00. we're told voting itself could start as soon as 7:30, and we as 8:00 tonight. a lot of very exciting things to look forward to. steve: i will ask you the same thing i asked eric. are you seeing outward signs of support? buttons, t-shirts, things like that? kim: i haven't seen the buttons like i think i heard eric saying he has seen, but i will tell you that when we drove in, we saw a sign planted in the front yard that said carly fiorina for president. not as many buttons as i may be expected but maybe i will have to go around and look. stacey: kim st. onge reporting live from ankeny. we will be checking back with you throughout the night. of course, we will also be watching the numbers come in

steve: so wilson via fodor, who is live at the media filing center in downtown des moines. cynthia: hundreds of reporters have gone out to the caucuses right now. to cover those caucuses and get a peek inside. with us right now is the cochair of the iowa republican party. you said you have been watching tweets and hearing from people at those caucuses. what have they been telling you? >> the feedback we have been getting is that there has been a surge of people turning out, so that is good for iowa, good for republicans. cynthia: you are hearing long lines and you are expecting a record turnout. do you think a big percentage of them will be first time caucus-goers who are coming out to vote for donald trump?

candidates will drive new people to the process. they have been in iowa/last year, cultivating relationships. what we're most excited about is to see the enthusiasm that there is. cynthia: when they go to the caucuses tonight, even though the republican caucuses are much simpler and they just kathy vote, before they do that, they still have the opportunity to be persuaded. >> absolutely. that is one of the beauties of the process. your friends and neighbors will stand up and make the case and try to get you to caucus for their candidate as well. then we will open up the process in an open, transparent manner. cynthia: you said we might see, or you expect to see some of those lower tier candidate getting a few extra votes and perhaps being a surprise tonight? >> ending anytime you have an

of undecided voters, that process an opportunity for somebody -- that presents an opportunity for someone to exceed expectations. cynthia: thank you very much. we will be here at the media filing center as the numbers come in, bringing reaction. steve: as we mentioned, we are live at candidate locations. stacey: let's check in with todd magel, with the clinton campaign tonight. todd: we are at the olmstead center at drake university and this is ground zero for the hillary clinton campaign. wanting to find out who will be the winner on the democratic side. this is brian fallon, he is the national press secretary for hillary clinton. thanks for joining us. storm. it is do or die tonight. the polls have been extremely

what has she done over this past year to get the win tonight and why is it so close? >> we always knew it would be extremely close. it all comes down to the ground game. we are very proud of the organization we have built here. we've really worked to build relationships on the ground. just using the last four days as an example, we have had 11,000 volunteers knock on a quarter million doors. tonight, we will have 4200 trained precinct captains and corral support for hillary clinton. we are confident that, in a final analysis, we are going to democrat denominate against a donald trump or a ted cruz to protect the gains we've made under president obama and build on the progress on issues that keep people up at night. todd: this is the second go around for her. are the things that you mention

>> definitely, i think that she has put a premium on meeting voters directly, voter to vote or contact, building those relationships. they are very committed supporters of hillary clinton because she has engaged in real small, intimate settings in town halls across the state, really answering voters questions, with policy proposals on things like alzheimer's, opiate addictions. it is all because she was being responsive to the concerns she heard from iowa. i think there is still time for iowans to find their caucus site. at hillary clinton. -- at hillaryclinton.com/ioawa, you can find out. don't be dissuaded by the weather. it will come later tonight. todd: you heard it here. get out and caucus. that is the mantra here at the

we are told that she will be in a hotel tonight, watching the caucus results from their, and she will be here when we have some better numbers later on tonight. we are live at drake university, we will throw it back to you. stacey: we will of course be watching what unfolds at the bernie sanders headquarters. steve: that is where we find our laura terrell. laura: is kind of the calm before the storm here at the holiday inn express at the airport. that is where bernie sanders and his campaign will be watching the results come in. not a lot going on, just sort of the press setting up. we are told in a few hours, this room will be filled with hundreds and hundreds of people. the campaign tells me it will be a raucous crowd. i asked earlier about voter turnout, because really that is what will make sanders win tonight. he is depending on the young

turnout, because of that doesn't happen, clinton's infrastructure and organization could win out. they say they expect a lot of people to caucus for bernie sanders and that will be evident later by the big crowds we are seeing. stacey: thank you. we are minutes away from the beginning of the start of the night for the iowa caucuses.

ringing) you can't deal with something, by ignoring it. but that's how some presidential candidates seem to be dealing with social security. americans work hard, and pay into it. so our next president needs a real plan to keep it strong. (elephant noise) (donkey noise)

steve: 2016 iowa caucuses get underway in just a little more than 10 minutes. you are looking live at one of the caucus sites up and ankeny. this is the ankeny baptist church. as you can see, the crowd is cute -- is huge. record crowds. going into tonight, donald trump republican side. smith with that campaign tonight. banking on his supporters caucus for him. he has gotten sold-out crowds

supporters, but many political analysts have questioned if those supporters will turn out tonight to indeed cast a ballot in his name. we are live inside the west des moines sheraton, tracking the candidates' progress. this is where candidate trump will address hundreds of his supporters tonight. trump's ground game has been a bit of a mystery because little has been released as to his whereabouts. he has been so few night that when he did overnight, it made news recently. in regards to news and the progress of ballots cast, we will be bringing you continue live coverage both on-air and online. we anticipate donald trump to address the crowd tonight alongside his family and of course hundreds of supporters behind me. that is the latest, live in west

news, iowa's news leader. stacey: the ted cruz campaign will also be watching and waiting tonight. steve: mark tauscheck is live at ted cruz campaign headquarters at the iowa state fairgrounds. mark: we are still waiting to hear from senator cruz. we hear he is out in cedar rapids at a precinct. he is supposed to have from there to the fairgrounds where he is going to appear in front of a rowdy crowd, for sure. in december, senator cruz had a big lead over trump in the iowa polls. once he was in front, he became a big target. governor branstad told people not to vote for him saying cruz is an opponent of renewable fuels. he has been playing defense after those questionable mailers will -- mailers were sent out saying that not caucusing was a possible voter violation. he is still expected to make a

in the weekend paul among caucus-goers who identify as religious conservatives, he has a 14 point lead over trump. we are hold -- we are told that they have high hopes for tonight. senator cruz, a year ago, if he had been told that he had been tied for first place in iowa, he said that he would consider that a huge win. that is certainly where he is at according to the latest polls. getting the endorsement of representative steve, king, the man they called the kingmaker was also really big for crews. he has a big following among those conservatives that senator cruz is working so hard to court. we hope to talk to his national press secretary coming up in just a bit. stacey: on the republican side, another campaign we will be watching is that of marco rubio.

there tonight. marcus: unlike some of the other places you have seen just moments ago, we are here live in -- live at the marriott hotel. not a lot going on right now. there are a few marco rubio staffers here, but if i must be honest, there are more press present then rubio staffers or volunteers at this point. but that is expected to change as the night goes on. right now, senator rubio is making three appearances at different caucus locations. expected he will come here at some point. the people here are excited. i've spoken to senator rubio a number of times that he says he is a man who will beat hillary clinton or any other democrat on the ballot opposite him. he says he will get the country back on the path to prosperity. we have much more coming up as the night progresses, and we

stacey: (donkey sound) (elephant sound) there's a big difference between making noise, (tapping sound) and making sense. (elephant sound) (donkey sound) when it comes to social security, we need more than lip service. our next president needs a real plan to keep social security strong. (elephant noise) hey candidates. enough talk.

steve: a big old winter storm is headed our way. but as far as the caucuses are concerned, this is timing out well. kurtis: it will wait until later. the only problem we have had is the fault east of the metro. visibility is in marshalltown, newton, grinnell, intel around one quarter of a mile. snow trend -- not much of a chance until about 10:00 p.m., with a 50-50 shot. snow will taper by noon. central iowa will get a break tomorrow afternoon, and then another little band will move in around 7:00. pretty quiet at least tomorrow afternoon. northwestern iowa will have the highest wins. that is why they have a blizzard

through 6:00 a.m. for lesser amounts of snow, still some problems. a winter weather advisory in jasper county and down through warren county. 5-9 inches in the metro, to the northwest, 6-12. if we get some thunderstorms to the northwest, we could have isolated higher amounts. snow totals, here is how it is tallying. in the metro, 5'7" at noon. -- 5.7 inches at noon. these are some radar returns to southwestern iowa. barely making it to the ground, but there is a whole lot of snow in parts of nebraska and kansas, soon to be headed our way. 10:00 p.m., a little rain in the metro.

1:00 a.m., snow from the metro to highway 20. early tomorrow morning, widespread heavy snow. southern iowa in some rain. tomorrow, late morning, rain east of the metro. snow in the metro. afternoon break as some dry air works in and then watch how the tail end of this system will pull through late tomorrow night, early on wednesday morning, with some additional snowfall. here is our futurecast. i showed you the general snowfall map. anywhere from 5-7 inches in the metro. notice the heavier amounts to the north. we will zoom in a little closer. heaviest snow west and north. lighter amounts from knoxville to grinnell, with the wind, we will still see some problems there. to the north, these are the locations that, if it all comes together, could see up to maybe

tonight, the low down at 32. majority of the snow after midnight. tomorrow, morning snow. heavy at times. afternoon break. 5-9 inches in the metro. 9 inches amount of the extreme western dallas county and maybe northwestern polk county. wednesday, blowing snow early morning. thursday, 31. a warm-up on the way. 30's in store friday into the weekend.

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but that's how some presidential candidates seem to be dealing with social security. americans work hard, and pay into it. so our next president needs a real plan to keep it strong. (elephant noise) (donkey noise) hey candidates, answer the call already. >> this is an eight news special. commitment 2016, iowa caucuses live. steve: we are not kidding there. iowa caucuses are up and operating. we want to go to one of the caucus sites. stacey: let's check into the democratic caucus site at a middle school in it des moines. reporter: just a second ago, the crowd got quiet as the precinct chair began talking.

he is in the blue shirt. he is calling the meeting to order. take a look at this crowd. this is one of 1600 meetings like this across the state and it is huge. there are hundreds of people that started gathering here at 4:45 this afternoon. let's wander through the crowd and show you how packed this is. not only are the people here on the floor, but in the distance, you can see people are sitting on the ground, sitting on folding chairs, and in the distance, the entire bleachers are filled with people. this is packed and the expected this to be a packed crowd from the very beginning. this is a very involved neighborhood. they had 565 caucus-goers when president obama was elected. there was no democratic caucus for years ago because of the incumbency, but this is what is happened. let's take a look at the graphics and show you what will

the first democratic precinct will elect a chair. that is the person in the front of the room, and his name is jeff. then comes the challenge right away, they have to begin counting every individual in this room. there are 800 people in this room, and they will have to count them off to verify how many people are in this room. after the count everyone in this room, then all 800 people will have to move into a presidential preference area. they will have to gather around a sign that says hillary clinton or bernie sanders or martin o'malley. that will take some time as well. after that happens, they will calculate viability. you have to get 50% as a candidate to be viable. they will find out -- who is liable and who is not. if you are not viable, the horse trading starts.

then they will figure out how many delegates. back your live, you can see the crowd is huge and they are getting ready to register the final people through the doors. the meeting has not officially started yet. a lot of people gathering outside. there are a lot of mothers ringing and their newborns into this room. there are also folks with canes. it is a challenge to come to the democratic caucus, and just as many people from this neighborhood are gathered to take part in this event area this is what everything is about. stacey:steve: is everyone in the room? reporter: i took a lot in the hallway and there were a dozen or so folks who were registering, filling out the rest of the paperwork. most of them have been in the room for a half hour, but the

most folks are in here, and only half of them have a seat to sit down in. there are 400 people in the bleachers and the floors. you can do the math and figure we have a lot of people. in front of this picture, you have kids playing games on the ground, some strollers with martin o'malley stickers on them. this is in all age event. i had a senior citizen walk up to me and say, remind me why we do the caucuses and don't just show up? this has been the process we have an iowa, and it is an exciting process to see it watching things happen. it is quite an event at this middle school and keep in mind, this in iowa. steve: thank you very much. democracy in action. in the state of iowa.

we are live with the republican caucus tonight at the baptist church. reporter: it is standing room only. let me tell you, this room is packed. there are 350 chairs for the people at the baptist church, but there are obviously dozens and dozens of people who are standing on the perimeter of this sanctuary, and if you swing around, there are also people on the stage. they have been feeding people you guys may have run out of room. they were talking about 450 people here at this precinct, double what they had at the last caucus round. this is one of the biggest precincts. this is the podium where the representatives from each of the 11 campaigns will be speaking from, trying to convince voters who may be undecided. there are some and i have been speaking to some of them, giving them the final push to vote for their candidate.

and a couple minutes, and i pooled keep --polled people, and just on the people i asked, the majority were from ted cruz, donald trump and mario -- marco rubio. the majority seem to be ted cruz supporters. if you look over here at the perimeter, there are several high school students caucusing for the first time, and they will have the opportunity to vote for the first time in november. the caucus has brought a people of all age ranges. i want to bring you over here where i met a gentleman who says he is undecided tonight. tell us your name. >> i am jason. reporter: you are undecided. there will be representatives from the campaigns time to sway voters. what do you want to hear from them? >> i would like to hear about

would slay you? -- sway you? >> not necessarily, i have done my research. reporter: thank you so much. i want to bring you over here, and people are lining up on the side. there are 40 people or so hanging out in the foyer, and that is where they are checking they have not done that yet. this will be people who have never caucus before, and democrats caucusing as republicans and also include people who are independents. this is how this whole thing works. it is a lot simpler than the democratic caucuses, because they are given one of these blank white slips of paper. for two minutes, and then they will write the name of the

into a basket, and eventually those will all be sorted into a different pile for the candidates and will be tallied at the whiteboard. that is where they will be writing that. it looks like things are just starting to get under the way. they are voting between it 7:30 and 8:00.

450 basic time or beat her here, she leaves your own good. they are doing everything they can to pull out a victory from them. are you seeing a different kind of energy among voters? dennis: judging by what we are seeing at the precinct, there is a lot more people. how that will play out when we finally get numbers, we will see. we will have more people out for two reasons. one, people who have been registered republicans and democrats on the but have not participated before, they are showing up this time. we have been at the center of the political universe. we have reporters from japan, finland and sweden and so forth. the other reason, the more interesting one would be also said people who have not been registered them across and republicans, but independents, who cannot technically vote as they are turning out. the thought is, that would help possibly bernie sanders on the democratic side. steve: you can switch your party and do you see with crowds like this, that many people crossing over? a republican trying to change democratic numbers? dennis: i do not know of any

had large scale attempts of that. i do not know if either side would say their candidate is in the bag at this point, so they have reason to stay with their own party. stacey: we also saw with the latest poll released, there were so many voters, likely caucus-goers who were undecided, 30% democratic and 39% republicans. what does that say to you? dennis: well, partly it could be some people who are undecided, like the gentleman that was just being spoken to. also, iowans play their cards close at times, and may not actually want to say who they are supporting.

hear speeches to show their hands. stacey: he keeps referring to the horse trading that is going on, once a candidate is seen as not viable. what does that mean? that is not viable, and it you are asking people to join you to no, really, if you think about if you come with us, we will let convention. step right up. stacey: are we seeing her pressure? this is very public. we saw with the white pieces of paper with the republicans, you do not have to tell anyone.

you are for a particular candidate. steve: let's go back to that guy that has been telling us about running. school. underway. the volume of the room has one speaker for this massive room and they are doing parliamentary staff. -- stuff. they are dispensing things like who is actually the chair of this meeting, jeff at the podium is actually the person in charge. at thislet's listen in to the logistics of what he is actually talking about. >> we are going to try to count this room, two people counting the room. one will count the right half and one will count the left half. this will take half the time.

counter will ask you to stand will sit down. for those who are standing, we are going to ask you to raise your hand and as you are counted , you will lower your hand. to the extent that, at this somewhat blocked here, to equalize the crowded this of the room, we need some people, more people to move to this site, and it does not mean he will not be divided when we caucus, when we do the division, but we are going to try to count this side of the room and then this side of the room. i know it is a lot to ask, but those who are standing, if by some miracle, you form into

account done pretty fast. [laughter] >> >> so, what we will ask to do here is, those in the center, right now, divide so that we have a clear delineation. reporter: the process begins. this is what we have been talking about, all of the logistics of things with people listening in the room. let's listen to what he is saying. >> i need print broadcast to move behind me. we are now starting the count. reporter: that is a challenge specifically because we have media from austria, norway, sweden, japan, united kingdom, all over the world are physically in this room.

things, because before we can break into preference groups, we have to find out how many people are physically in this room, and that is the division that starts to find out who is viable. this is just the first step in a long process tonight's at this one caucus site to figure out how many people are in the room, then we break into different presidential preference groups, and then we finished figure out the horse trading. it is about 7:20 in des moines, so trying to create some water in all of this -- create some order in all of this chaos, because people do not know what is going on and we have only one speaker. this will be quite a challenge to get the logistics of this room counted. steve: thank you very much. nice work. we do need to let you know from the police department, everyone should avoid the area of the

due to a serious accident, a motor vehicle versus pedestrian collision. this road is completely shut down to traffic in both directions. this is a busy location due to the caucuses and that is in the 7000 block in west des moines, please stay away from it. stacey: we want to take you to the republican caucus. reporter: they just kicked things off, starting with the pledge of allegiance. precinct, which happens to be one of the biggest with about 450 people expected tonight. they are coming over the logistics of tonight, but basically how this will happen is, shortly they will have one whiteboard, acting as candidates. they will have between 2-5

they have to simply write the candidate's name on a plane, white card and full-day. they will be counted. she happens to be representing jeb bush. that is sushi is speaking about right now. she is trying to convince the -- that is who she is speaking about right now. she is trying to convince these undecided voters to support him. i have been talking to a lot of people here, and most of them seemed to be supporting ted cruz. we heard a lot from marco rubio and donald trump supporters. if you look there, take a look at this. there are about 350 chairs in the baptist church, and those are filled. people are standing in the four-year, the hallway and there is not enough room here. this is an overflow of crowds. this is an amazing turnout.

slips, and they are people who have never voted before. they could be democrats voting in the republican caucus, and their work 130 of them. an amazing turnout you are seeing. some people have to sit on the stage because of this tremendous turnout. this is the first representative , who happens to be the precinct chair. they will filter through the different candidates before they eventually vote. i am told we could have results as soon as 8:00. unhappy cameras swing around and show you the room. they will have pieces of paper that they will for input into these baskets. they have one for each of the 11 candidates. these will be piled and then counted. that is how they sort this whole thing out. it is a lot simpler than the

help to bring you results soon. stacey: cam, thank you. steve: we do want to go from cnn at a caucus site in west des moines at st. francis church, a catholic church. marco rubio would visit three different caucus sites tonight. donald trump looks like he is moving from site to site. that probably have to make the caucus-goers really good at those locations. stacey: we have a number of large events tonight, large turnouts. we have a text from a viewer who said they are still standing outside the elementary school, waiting to get in and caucus. we understand that her guns elementary school -- perkins elementary school has crowds of so large, they have moved the caucus outside.

and 36 degree temperature weathers on february 1 in iowa. it is crazy. steve: it shows we are taking this very seriously. the crowds are unbelievable. if they cannot even begin, the democrats, to begin their accounts and get into the whole process, this could be a long evening. dennis: even on the republican side, where they said the speakers would be given 2-5 minutes and 11 candidates. that is 55 minutes if they do not take a break. it could be another hour. stacey: we want to check in with a caucus update at hoover. reporter: i am here at herbert hoover high school, and this is not even the end of the line and you can see it wrapping all the way around the inside of the school.

they are trying to get into this through the main entrance and go hundreds are still waiting to get inside. even though we are getting close to that start time, workers tell me everyone is going to be able to vote. they just have to wait for stacey: it seems everybody at good time. dennis: we saw that with the republican side. they seem quite happy. this is when people criticize the caucuses cousin who participates and the difficulties of working various shifts, still, this is public citizen democracy. this reminds me of a colleague who came to teach and after her first caucus said, if you can get me this experience every away.

yesterday, they said when nevada needed people to instruct them on how to hold caucuses, they hire people from iowa. we do take this very seriously and we know how to do this. dennis: we have to fight to keep states do not like it. the governor said regardless of democrats, he will work to hold caucuses. stacey: we need to check back in eric. reporter: the key of the game at this middle school is organization, and right now it is a matter of counting. along the wall to the left, up their hands. the first order of business is to simply count the number of people in the room. they're counting the number of people on the floor, and you can see hans going down, which means they are counting. they are counting the left-hand

once they get everyone on the floor counted, they will ask everyone in the stands and the chairs to stand up, and as they count them off, they will sit down. there are two people physically counting how many democratic precinct caucuses are from this neighborhood in this room. they are approaching finishing the count. now what would happen is every person, as they go down the line, able count off 1, 2, 3, 4, and this is very important to find out who wins and who needs viability, they have to find out who is physically in this room. in just one second, you will see folks on the right side stand up as they begin to count off. i do not have an estimate on how many people are physically here, but i know it years ago, when president obama was elected in this room, there were 562 people.

grown over the eight years, so they are guessing they were expecting between 700 people and 800 people. i would say that is a safe bet. if you can see on the left, the geithner the blue shirt, he is going down the road, counting off -- the guy in the blue shirt, he is going down the row, counting off. once they have the number counted, they will ask all of the people to break off into the various candidates, hillary, sanders, martin o'malley. then, they have to do this counting process again. organization. this is a lot of coordination and cooperation from all of these people in here, who a lot

there is one speaker in the room, and 40 international members of the press watching this particular precinct together it is one of the largest in the metro area. this is handy for them to watch iowa and action. you can hear the murmur of the crowd, and people are beginning to realize this will take a while. we will stop back in just a few minutes and let you know what is happening after they get done counting. stacey: thank you, eric. steve: let's check in with cam. she is at the republican -- excuse me, we will go to cnn video of donald trump at st. francis catholic church. he is speaking to the crowd,

win this anyway. wrong. we have made so many bad decisions, the iran deal, giving get nothing. -- 150 million dollars and we get nothing. this funds everything everyone in the room does not want to be funded. [applause] donald trump: we are going to bring the country back. when i started this year, and it has been an amazing journey, am a messenger.

we are going to run this country run. mistakes. remember this, i am not taking anything from the special interest. i am funding my own campaign. i will not be told what to do. you. i do not need their money. i do not want their money. they are great companies, some world. i say that not in a braggadocio's way, but because

rubio wrap up his statement. steve: pretty impressive if you are at a caucus site and donald trump or marco rubio shows up. we are going to look at gender numbers on the gop side. we have signed on with a company that collects interest -- in to-poll information. what are you seeing in these republican gender numbers right now? dennis: typically, the republican caucus, a majority of participants are men. women are less than 50%. the democratic caucus will be the reverse. interestingly, donald trump, who has had issues and been criticized for the way he talks about women, he is among the various candidates leading by

of the women republican caucus-goers, trump has 28% of them and rubio has 21%, ted cruz, 20%. in terms of men, trump has 27% of men, ted cruz, 23%, rubio, 22 percent. so he is ahead of crews and rubio with men and women. steve: this is information that is taken from people on their way and to decide -- way in to the site. people can change their minds. stacey: we have a number of information. a very large crowd at elkhart veterans community center for veterans republican caucus. door at 7:15 tonight. mess. steve: let's get back over to

biggest caucus sites in town in des moines. eric: the breaking news is they finished the count in this room and the count of people in the room is 765 people. that is a huge number. more than 200 more than eight years ago. they did the math and 15% of that means that if any one group does not have 115 caucus-goers in their group, they are not liable. to dispense with the formality, the precinct chair asked that we dispense with things and say, how about o'malley and uncommitted folks come up to the room and we will count you and decide whether or not you have 115 people. that is what is happening. the sanders people have backed off. the clinton folks have backed off. the o'malley and undecided voters have come to the front of the room. we are listening to the precinct chair.

their hands. we are going to count those people. it is a way to avoid counting all 765 people one at a time. now they are going one by one. the people with their hands up our caucusing for martin o'malley. they are trying to figure out if there are 115 people. if there are, they are viable. if not, these people with their hands up are up for grabs. that is what they are determining out. one by one, they are dropping their hands. you can see an o'malley signed coming in. they are hoping they will have 115 people so they have the ability to get a delegate to the county democratic party coming up in a couple of months. at this point, we are not sure. it looks like it is going to be close. we will see what is happening. on the far side of this group, those aren't uncommitted people. people who are not caucusing for

this group is the deciding factor. who is going to be arguing over and trying to sway over people from this group? if you wait a couple more seconds, we may have a number. we are getting to the last hands down. the person with the official number is coming outward. let's hear what they are saying here to the precinct chair. the official number is coming to the front. 51 o'malley is the correct number. they needed about 15% but they got about 5%. now the question becomes, what is going to happen with those people? are they going to change sides and go to sanders or clinton or are they going to be given some extra people by clinton in order to heat them from going to sanders or something along those lines? that is the process as it is playing out now.

we will continue to check back in. left side, clinton supporters. on the right side, sanders supporters. in the middle, these are people who will try to be persuaded. steve: are you seeing some movement? we have a wide shot. people are going to have to make a move are we seeing anybody move from one cap to the next? eric: we are not, but i am overhearing people saying, ok, what do we do now? you can see some folks with hillary clinton t-shirts and stickers and they are waiting in the wings, trying to figure out, ok, when is the appropriate time to not house -- pounce, but walk up to these o'malley supporters and make their pitch. they are creating the game plan. the campaigns have a plan of what they would do in this case but they did not know whether there were going to be working

o'malley. the clinton and sanders people are trying to your out there game plan and so are the o'malley people, trying to figure out what is next. convincing have to be diplomatic. they have to be iowa nice. dennis: that is right. you can turn off somebody and the can make a difference between the entire delegate at the county convention. all of those delegates at up -- add up. the uncommitted people will be up for grabs a matter what. maybe the o'malley people can persuade them to come to their side. there are probably a couple dozen. i have not gotten an official number. >> now we are going to start counting bernie sanders supporters and hillary clinton supporters.

eric: so that is obviously a much bigger one. down. eric: so we know that the o'malley folks are not liable. neither are the uncommitted. going on. 51 o'malley supporters, six uncommitted in this room. they needed 115 to be viable. they are going to be up for grabs in a few minutes. if you check in pretty soon, you will find out what happened. stacey: dennis, you were saying -- they talked about all the national and international media at these caucuses. dennis: the iowa caucuses are covered wall-to-wall not just by american media, what foreign media. i talked to multiple journalists from sweden, norway, france,

japan. process. when i explained it to them, their faces are a mixture of fascination and disbelief. they do what? they have a very different party system from ours. steve: they think it is kind of dumb? kurtis: -- dennis: their concern is, isn't this undemocratic? remember, it is run by the parties, not by the state election. again, the people worked a 3:00-11:00 shift, they cannot participate. the democrats are trying to get people in the service to come in. we will see how many do that. that is what they european concern seems to be.

count the voters in the caucus steve: welcome back to 2016 caucus coverage. we are getting our first numbers of the night with 8% of the precincts coming in. hillary clinton taking the lead over bernie sanders and martin o'malley trailing in third. on the republican side, here we go. donald trump and ted cruz that can -- and that -- n eck-and-neck. marco rubio in the third spot. stacey: very early still. only 2% of precincts reporting. john kasich, rick santorum with 1%. steve: dennis, probably coming

less-populated areas. dennis: he would think so. as we have seen looking at the middle school, in terms of the time it takes to do everything for all those people, even if it is a straightforward vote, you can get through it faster with your people. stacey: only 8% reporting on the democratic side and 2% on the republican side. it is still very early. does it give you a picture of what to expect or is it just a snapshot in time? dennis: i think it is a snapshot. in terms of the entrance polls, they show trump leading cruise by 27%-22%. early returns show that he was maybe 32% and crews -- cruz was 31%. that could be more accurate. we do not know yet. it is early.

all night, the republican caucus is much different than the democratic caucus. let's go take kim st. onge, where the republicans are caucusing tonight. kim: they are getting ready to vote in a couple of minutes. they just wrapped up speeches from the campaign representatives. last was a representative speaking on behalf of donald trump. we only heard from seven representatives. there was no representative there to speak on behalf of many candidates. the ben carson representative was one of the ben carson campaign volunteers who was involved in a fatal car accident in atlantic not too long ago. he talked about ben carson's compassion as far as him stopping his campaign temporarily to visit them in the hospital. he says that is one reason why he knows he wants to vote or ben

so people to do the same. this is one of the largest precincts in the area. there are about 350 seats on the floor. it is quite clear there are dozens of people who are lining the walls of this church. they tell me they have had an incredible voter turnout, including new voters. that is huge here. there are 11 candidates, but we have heard there are at least 130, if not more, voter registrations. that includes people who are independent and people who have never caucused before, including some high schoolers who tell me they are very excited to caucus and vote for the first time this year. it also includes independents who are deciding to caucus as a republican. they will be having this sheet of paper they were given, very

it is a matter of them writing the candidate's name that they would like to vote for on that sheet. they will put it into one of the colorful baskets you may have seen earlier that had different candidates' names on it. the officials at this precinct will pile them up or each candidate and count them. we were expecting earlier to get results starting at 8:00, but i think it took longer to get finished with those speeches. you might see the bucket right there. that is the precinct chair collecting those votes. let's go right here. we will follow him right now. people are going down the line and putting it in very casually here, unlike the democratic caucus. with a pencil, they have just

once they get to this part of the process, it should not take too long to start getting results. they have collect those and count them. some of the precinct officials are going to be in charge of that. there will also be some representatives from candidates that we heard from a moment ago that will be given the opportunity to sit by the precinct officials. they will be there to make sure there is not a miscount. we know there was a situation several years ago and they are making sure they are transparent in this process and do not miss a step. some people who have already filled out their ballots and turn them in our heading out the door. people have the option to stay here until everything is said and done, when the ballots are counted, or they can leave. it is very simple here. a very quick in and out. the speeches probably went on for about 1.5 hours. they were all very passionate. there was a lot of excitement from the route, applause, even

this is clearing out quickly. as you saw earlier, there were people in the foyer, people in the hallway. every little inch of this foyer and sanctuary was filled with voters. there we go. i just saw a gentleman who voted for marco rubio. when i told about 75 people earlier, i was hearing a lot of ted cruz and marco rubio. a handful of donald trump. it will be interesting. with the polls that we have seen having trump on top and then ted cruz and marco rubio a distant third. it will be interesting to see how this pans out because of the fact that this is a huge precinct and every vote counts. this looks like it is moving right of -- right along ongoing row by row. let's chat with you really fast. can i ask your name? you have already voted. can you tell us who you voted for?

>> tell us why you voted for trump. >> because i believe that he can change things and he speaks his mind and i appreciate that he is funding his own campaign. kim: are you confident that he is going to pull ahead here?

im am not sure about some of the other states. we have several good candidates. it is very hard to say. kim: this is very different that a democratic caucus, where you have to have 15% viability. this is a very quick in and out once the candidates have had their representatives speak. what do you think about the whole process? >> i think it was very organized and went really well. kim: thank you so much for your time. we should have results soon. this is a quick process. they have been counting quickly as people have been filtering out of here. check back in a little bit and we could have an exciting turnout -- or i should say, just a really exciting pull number here. check back in just a little bit.y getting up, putting on their coats, an- i thought he was asking me a question. 6 c1 kim. there is other business bucket. dennis:ngs. they picked particular people to be d they also talked about positio issues that they would like to fall under the state party platform in june.

for the preference votes, whether through the groups on the democratic side or the paper on the republican side. and then folks leave. the more intensely-motivated actors are the ones who stay. stacey: it is fun to see so many children at tonight's caucus. it may be an issue of child care so the parents can hit the caucuses. they are getting a heck of a lesson. dennis: a lesson in citizens democracy. absolutely. that is one thing the caucuses do. we can talk to these politicians, these candidates, face-to-face instead of just being crops for photo ops. steve: we are very fortunate in the state of iowa. stacey: we are watching them count the ballots right now at the republican gop caucus. out. each basket is for an individual

stacey: we should know in a short time from that particular caucus location who comes out on top. dennis: you want your breath when you see that. you think of florida in 2000 and i guess they misplaced some ballots here in the iowa precinct caucuses in 2012. so you watch this and keep your fingers crossed. steve: at least we do not have to worry about hanging chads. the urbandale gop, things greatly exceeded expectations. they ran out of voter registration forms at one gop site. stacey: now we need to check in with the democrats and see how their caucus is doing in merrill middle school tonight. eric: they are just getting done with a number. they have counted everybody off. they are threatening to do the

what it boils down to, there were 760 people in the room. about 500 of them -- listen to the numbers. >> the challenge with a count of this many people. you are correct. that is 900 people. we do not have 900 people in the room. so again, i hate to say this, folks. this is a challenge. we're going to have to count the sanders and the clinton group again. i apologize. we are doing the best we can, but we have got to get this right. eric: first, they counted all 767 people in the room. after they counted all 767 people in the room, they asked the o'malley people to come to the front of the room and there

that is not enough to be viable. as a result, the suggestion being offered in the room -- they are asking a suggestion to try to figure out how to better count them. 767 people were counted in the room. they added up the sanders people at about 380. they added of the hillary folks at about 550. about 60. people. the actual number was 767. they are trying to figure out how to remedy those numbers. so they are trying to just ask for suggestions to figure out how this resolves itself with 767 people in the room. you mentioned just a couple of

>> i did ask that the folks on the floor stand in lines of 10. i did ask that. rose, -- rows, i am sorry. eric: they are trying to figure out what to do now. they know that the map is not adding up here and they are trying to figure out what to do. they are going to recount for the second time this crowd of about 767 people. this is a wrinkle and one of the reasons why folks are wondering exactly why we do it this way. you mentioned kids. there are a lot of kids in the fringes of the crowd. they are getting a lesson in patience and persistence and trying to be civil in a crazy situation that is challenging. they are reorganizing this room a second time.

rallying for exactly where the o'malley people go. you can check back in with us in a little bit. that is what is unfolding at merrill middle school. stacey: they might also have to make sure that nobody leaves before it is all done. that throws off the map again. erik: exactly. that is the challenge. stacey: some people may leave there was an issue. going on tonight. the o'malley people have asked if they can move yet. you cannot move yet because we need to get a count of how many people we have in the room. i have talked with some o'malley people. they said, we have a game plan we are not viable.

election. that could make a big difference as the night goes on. you can see the hands going up on the sanders side of the room. they are recounting. they counted 300 people on that side of the room at 500 people on the hillary's side. there were only supposed to be 767 people in the room. they are asking for people to be called patient -- calm and patient. steve: give me an idea of the level of frustration in the room. our people getting a little ticked off? eric: it is more people looking at each other and saying, we have to do this again? well, yeah. we have to do it again. it is not so much frustration at this point. we have only been here about an hour since the caucuses started. i did hear a couple of people saying candidate turn on an air conditioner?

with the international members of the media, probably 50 of those plus the 167, plus campaign workers. i talked to visitors from the clinton campaign. there have to be close to 900 people in the gymnasium. they are hoping the air conditioner goes on pretty soon. they will need bathroom breaks and water coming in. check in with me and about 10-13 minutes. stacey: thank you so much. we need to get over to the republican caucus, which kim st. onge has been following tonight. we have some developing numbers. kim: they are sorting all the votes right now. i want to point you in the direction of the three red baskets that are far this on the right side. the farthest is donald trump. the second one is ted cruz area and that one is marco rubio, where the most recent ballots were just thrown in. those are the three fullest

lines up with the most recent polls we have seen in iowa. the other candidates, like fiorina, jeb bush, santorum, some of them do not have any of them at this point. so. a lot of the people i was speaking with earlier were saying that they were voting for ted cruz and rubio. a handful saying they were going to vote for trial -- four from -- for trump. if you are going by household the baskets are, it is like they are neck and neck. they look the same almost as far as helpful they are. how this is going to work is once they finish sorting from these buckets, they will then take out all of the ballots from those baskets and they will start the counting process. i was telling you earlier that

officials be here and counting them, there will also be some people who are with the campaign, some of the representatives we heard from earlier. they will be sitting right next to them so the whole process is transparent. you do not want to make a big mistake since these polls have some candidates neck and neck. they want to make sure they get it right the first time. it looks like it is moving right along. they started the sorting process within the last 10 minutes. i do want to show you, if you could show some of the auditorium, this was so packed earlier. there were people lining the halls, in the foyer, standing in the hallway. it has really cleared out. once people drop their ballot into the bucket, they were free to go. a lot of people got off and -- got up and took off. this is a bigger process than the democratic process, where

get the final decision as to whether the candidate will get liability. -- will get liability -- viability. as soon as they finish sorting these, they will begin the process of tallying of the whiteboard. that is where they will post the results as far as the raw numbers. we will get the raw numbers and a percentage from the precinct to determine who won tonight caucuses. we will have some numbers for you as far as how the voters voted tonight. steve: we do want to get you some actual results. you can see the numbers on the bottom of your screen. we are going to show them to you in a much larger form. hillary clinton ahead of bernie sanders at this point.

as we moved to the republican side, this is with 8% of the precincts reporting. ted cruz in the lead, just 1% over donald trump. just 8% of the precincts reporting in. marco rubio and ben carson in double digits there. we have all single-digit reporting results here with 8% of the precinct reporting in on the republican side. stacey: are you surprised to see ben carson with the support at this point? dennis: he has the support of a he takes that somewhat out of ted cruz and marco rubio. he was stronger until the paris attacks occurred and san rand paul had more attractiveness. because of his background and

actively involved in the world. that has hurt their campaign. ben carson is also said to have a very good organization. i have heard that. i have heard that about ted cruz's organization to the has had a lot of television as lately. nobody more than marco rubio. but carson was hanging in there. i am not surprised to see him a distant fourth. stacey: massive turnout all over the state. what does that translate into? it has got to meet a lot of first time caucus-goers. dennis: using our entrance hole figures, it says 45% of conference goers say it is their first time at a caucus. 42% of democratic caucus-goers say it is the first time. it is a lot of new people. the republican first-timers are

a third of them are going for donald trump. this is what we expected. on the democratic side, almost 2-1, these new folks are going for bernie sanders. steve: i know we will get this information in our entrance polling, but the age breakdown to see who is voting. bernie sanders' crowd is said to be very young. dennis: if you look at the figures, and i was looking at them just a moment ago, fully, the further up you go in age on the republican side, the more you get trumped voters -- trump voters. on the democratic side, the further down you get, the more you get sanders voters which is what we expected.

steve: we need to go to rose, who is live at perkins elementary. rose: they are moving the caucus site out here in the parking lot from the gymnasium. people are already congregating in there certain areas. the caucusing itself has not started because there are hundreds of people inside, waiting to get registered. people are grabbing their coats and bundling up, waiting for everything to get started at this site. stacey: thank you. we want to take a look at some of these entrance numbers that we have talked about just briefly a few moments ago. we have the percent of all republican caucus-goers by age here. 17-29, 12%. 30-44, 15%.

dennis: that is an old caucus-going electorate. only 27% 44 and other. that is typical for republicans, but it seems to be sharply older than we have seen in the past and steve: that could help donald trump. stacey: should we take a look at the democratic caucus-goers by age? steve: we are getting results with 29% of the precincts reporting in. you can see that things are still very tight on the republican side. here come the democratic age numbers. once again, the largest percentage on the democratic side is 45-64. dennis: caucus-goers tend to be 45 and older. democrats skew a bit younger than republicans.

stacey: we understand that sanders is drawing a lot of younger voters. if we are seeing a larger number of older voters, what does that mean for his campaign? dennis: it is not that he would not get votes or support from older people, but we assume it would be more likely translated to clinton support. steve: let's see what is going on at the very busy democratic caucus at merrill middle school in des moines. eric is going to fill us in with what is going on. eric: the temperature is rising in this room. it is about 10 after 8:00. the second round of counting has just ended. to recap what has been happening, they counted the room and got 767 people. they counted the o'malley people and got about 64 and six uncommitted. they counted the clinton and sanders people. 500, clinton.

that does not add up to 767. they had to count a second time. now. some people said they were not let's listen. >> can i have your attention please? thank you. we have, for our count for sanders, 246. 508. this is what i am going to say. i have had a discussion with this gentleman right here in terms of is the count accurate. at this point, at 8:00, we should do a realignment. what these numbers are does not make a difference. we need to do a realignment and

and uncommitted to decide what they want to do and i am showing 8:11. i will declare a 30-minute realignment period. this will give the clinton and o'malley -- and bernie sanders -- what is the problem here? we have got to do a realignment. eric: folks are upset because they are thinking, 30 minutes more of standing around here? they are wondering if it could be less than that. so there are questions coming in and some frustration from the sanders folks and the sanders people of what is going on. it is getting a little bit warm in here.

, a reporter from our boston station. i am guessing you have never experienced a caucus before. give us your take on what you are seeing. phil: i take it this is a bit out of the ordinary as well even or you. i have covered a lot of things. never seen the iowa caucus. i was expecting something fascinating. it is delivering. the first count, 900 people in the room. there are not. the second the -- the second count, you have a man who was not counted. the chairman saying they just need to realign people right now. it is wild. i guess this is what democracy looks like. eric: you have not experienced this. does this give ammunition to folks from outside of iowa saying, why are we doing it this way? or does it give you the fascination that this is really cool? phil: i have asked myself why iowa has done it this way.

everyone came out and they wanted to be counted physically. this is what it looks like. people in boston are fascinated by this. i have been tweeting all night and doing live shots for the boston area. eric: phil from our sister station in boston, one of dozens of international and national media here just that this middle school. there was an audible gasp in the crowd when they said we have 30 minutes to do some realignment. now i overheard folks saying we have kids in the crowd. people getting hot and bothered at this point. this is a large, physically, a lot of people in this room. the challenge begins with the hillary folks and the bernie folks in the middle. you will see them saying, o'malley folks, come over to our side.

the room. i do not know if they are going to get a drink or physically leaving the gymnasium out of frustration. now the horse trading begins. 90% of the people are staying where they are and getting frustrated. at the same time, another 10% of the folks are going, what is going on? what they are doing is this is an o'malley precinct captain who is trying to figure out how many more would we need to be viable? they need to get 110 people on their side to get a delegate. it might be that the hillary folks will say, we will give you a couple dozen just so we can go home. that could happen.

the next little while. it is kind of getting crazy here at merrill middle school. this is the democratic caucuses in action. stacey: thank you for bringing it to us in all the details. steve: we are going to stay right on top of it. we will be back with more. we are going to go to kim st. onge. what do you have? kim: the first results are in. it is a white piece of paper where they are jotting down the initial count. you may see andy: -- reporter: the initial numbers is carly fearing out with three. ted cruz with 161. marco rubio with 165. we have a four vote difference

particular precinct. anthony baptist church. there were over 400 votes being tallied right now. they put the names into a basket where they wrote the name of the candidate that they wanted to vote for. after they sorted, they started to count. it has taken 10 minutes or so. they are counting and recounting . it is a spectacle. like i mentioned, it is a packed room. 500 people. exceeded expectations. a hundred new voters including a few high schoolers. 11 candidates here. it is a heated debate. it is very close here.

i talked to a few people, they said hey who are you supporting? if you see the initial votes, it looks like chris christie is the initial number being reported now. it is seven. that is not official. when it is made official, they are going to write it on the whiteboard that is just beyond the crowd of people here. this is just the initial one. we have maybe another one. ben carson is at 37. jeb bush is at 20. rick santorum and in -- and fear enough at the very bottom. crews and rubio -- ted cruz and rubio are neck and neck.

they just circled ted cruz's name on 1621. they just wrote down 11 on casing. -- on john kasich. we have mike huckabee at 10. marco rubio, ted cruz. it is going to come down to single votes. the interesting thing is trump. we have not had those trump numbers come in. it will be interesting to see

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but that's how some presidential candidates seem to be dealing with social security. americans work hard, and pay into it. so our next president needs a real plan to keep it strong. (elephant noise) (donkey noise) hey candidates, answer the call already. hillary clinton with 48%. steve: half of the precinct reporting in. taking a look at the numbers on the republican side. make it to those. -- let me get to those.

reporter: the first clinton would need to win the 55 percent or better. the second point is to win narrowly. if almost half of iowa democrats still prefer bernie sanders, she is not quite made the sale to democrats. if she loses to them, she leaves wounded. if you does not come into first place, she is wounded. reporter: the big question is where he goes from there. you have a democratic constituency and the

steve: we want to go downtown to cynthia. she is an capitol square. cynthia: eric olson who is gop strategists here in iowa just ran in from his caucus. eric tell us what you sell theisaw there? >> it was a real overthrow of crowds. -- a real overflow of crowds. mr. trump is drawing new folks into the party. it also had a larger turnout than i think was dissipated. i think in our four precincts, we might have 500 people. we had well over a live in

i think it was going to be a very strong turnout. the large turnout means there are going to be some folks coming in. it is going to be good for the trump campaign. cynthia: a lot of votes are coming in from which county. and who the county seems to be sporting so far. what do you see on the map? >> we have a lot of incomplete results. at this point a quarter of the votes are in. we had a expectation that senator cruises be doing well. a lot of votes or so out there. cynthia: what about the evangelical vote tonight? i think mr. trump is going to see some evangelical voters.

though he is not one of them, he is certainly somebody that is going to defend their values. he has managed to convey that message very convincingly in the caucus process. cynthia: let us talk about the governors, bush, case it, christie falling under here. what happened to them? >> there was an expectation that one of the governors was going to rise. rubio is in the third position. i think especially government -- if governor bush is not able to

stacey: we are brand-new numbers from the democratic caucus. the clinton 51%, bernie sanders with 48%. steve: ted cruz has pulled into the lead with 26%. donald trump in second place. marco rubio at 18%. ben carson and forth with 10%. as we moved to second-tier candidates. jeb bush and huckabee not doing so well. this point? votes. if the republicans get 121,000, we are quite a way to go yet.

ankeny baptist church. kim: we had this command with the last 10 seconds. the winner with more than 500 so votes is marco rubio. coming in second is ted cruz with 161. donald trump is third with 100 and four. thank arson i-37. grandpa has 24. the others are sitting from two -- jim gilmore got zero. the others are hovering from 5-20 range. marco rubio is a winner here. it is made official. they make it official by putting it on the board. they were shuffling through all of them. they sort of them in the baskets

then they were counting them and recounting them making sure that they had those correct. we did see a couple times, they written a number down, they scratch it out and then read -- then wrote another number down. they were able to catch a miscount. again, it looks like the results are in here. those -- most will have taken off. some people stuck around to see the official results. very exciting. this not falling the most recent iowa polls that we have been seeing here. steve: with the people who are left, will kind of reaction did you get when the numbers came up? kim: a lot excitement. i talked to a couple of people. a lot of the high school students told me that they are supporting high school -- marco rubio.

it was a upset. he added to the momentum and excitement here. stacey: thank you so much. dennis i want to talk to you about the low-tech in the caucuses. we see people writing names of debris, counting in baskets. and the count and recount of hundreds of people at the middle school. we see the video here now. the low-tech of this contributes to the critique and criticism that iowa should not have this process? reporter: absolutely. it is not officially an election. the secretary of state office, the voting booths, these are the private business meetings of the political parties and they choose to tabulate their

sometimes you see the problems with misplacing numbers. or the frustration we see in maryland, a shifting denominator because some people do lead any of the redo the whole thing. -- some people to leave. it is expression of opinion. people cross the country take note of. but it is one of the main reasons why other states critique this. if iowa is so important, can they get it right? stacey: -- steve: there is no indication here that we have not gotten it right. reporter: what seems to be the frustration or inefficiency that we are seeing here, in principle, that should not occur.

about a lot of voters caucus attendees changing party affiliations for one night only. perhaps not. what do you make of that? reporter: that is going to be interesting to see. some people do that. the entrance polls for the republicans, it's a 70% of the people going in were republican. 2% were democrat. that is not a lot. other. these are the entrance polls. but it shows there is some interest on the part of people who are not part of the regular party in the party race. steve: let us move around -- to the gop evangelical numbers. especially those of the top of the heap. we are looking at these people

born-again christians or evangelical christians. 64% say that they are evangelical christians. that is high. reporter: in 2012, 50 7% say that they were white, evangelicals. in 2008, it was 60% when mike huckabee one. -- won. ted cruz has bases hope campaign on the direct appeal to conservative evangelicals. in recent, in the last month, marco rubio himself has targeted that particular group as well. they have encourage them to come out. stacey: you see the percent of republican caucus goers who say they are born-again evangelicals.

-- prefer ted cruz. reporter: that is good for crews, but is not dominating. trump does not have to tie crews in evangelical support. he just needs to keep him from running away with it. trump is way ahead of everybody else with people who are not evangelical christians. steve: crews -- ted cruz iz's national scout -- national strategy is to get the evangelicals to do not go to the polls to vote for mitt romney. reporter: the ted cruz strategy is that there is a missing group of white evangelicals who have

that is who ted cruz says he is and he wants to authorities road these folks to the voting booth. evangelicals had voted the same rate as other segments of the electorate. they vote overwhelmingly for republicans. stacey: i was wondering if you take a look at the western iowa evangelical votes. we'll check in with ryan smith. ryan: that's right guys, we are live right here at the west des moines sheridan hotel inside the ballroom lobby. we have been waiting to see the supporters. they are just now filing in. they has started around 8:00. i spoke to the fire marshal, the max capacity here is about 1300 people. when you include the members of the media and all the equipment,

of donald trump supporters dwindled to about 750 people. the fire marshal also counting for overflow. entrance polls suggest that caucus sites across the metro right now. they are not leaving anything to chance. we go to video from earlier this afternoon. trump is participating in some face-to-face politics and i. evangelical christians. that is an importer -- and

takers today on ethanol. back out here live in west des moines, a victory for donald trump would give him a huge head start towards the nomination. he could achieve the unprecedented feat of winning the first caucus and if it happened, the first primary in new hampshire. the crowd continues to fill up inside the space. we expect more than 700 people here by the end of tonight. steve: thank you. we want to take a look at the latest result of the democratic side. 51% of precincts reporting in. the numbers of change very little on the democratic side other than bernie sanders has picked up a point.

heat between clinton and sanders. it will give the momentum if he it is pretty good. stacey: does clinton need a big win or just they win? big win. 55 or better. she has had trouble in i what. we saw that 2008, and 92 -- in 1992. school. eric: the republican caucus is not done here. the democratic caucus is still going. over the last half hour, a lot of decisions and discussion has o'malley votes.

matter of exact delegates. i am going to sneak over here. i am eric hanson at channel a. tell me what that half hour was like? >> at the figure out what the offer from either side was. once i had the contours of the deal figured out, i had to figure out martin o'malley supporters. the sanders campaign offered a better deal at the end. we had an offer from the clinton folks. what happened? >> we were offered more. three delegates -- sanders offered for, then they offered four. we offer less so we were not able to offer as much. sanders offered the better deal in the end.

this is quite an situation. eric: the middle of the room is divided right down the center. all of the left is in favor of hillary clinton. all of the right side is in favor of bernie sanders. we are getting ready to count one more time. there are a hundred people in this room. we are hearing some folks in the distance. instead of sitting around and counting everyone, we have been here for an hour and a half. the temperature in the room is increasing. everyone on the right side is going to be bernie sanders borders. thereafter -- there are 15 delegates here up for work. they are trying to decide how we are going to count. they're going to start counting one final time.

everyone at the side of the room is going to start counting off one, 2, 3. stands. happen on the left side of the room with the hillary clinton supporters one, two. most of the folks in the room at the standing here for the last half hour. they are waiting to decide where those 50 people who are o'malley supporters are going to be. most of the o'malley supporters moved over to the bernie side. some of them came over to the clinton side. they are trying to get a action delegate out of this. that the not end up happening. middle the gym. i think 90 some percent of the folks are still in the room. counted. they hung in with this for about two hours. we will see what happens in the

steve: when you are talking about horsetrading, you are not getting -- not kidding. eric: they were 50 some supporters for o'malley. there is empty spot now. about a third came over to the newly clinton side. two thirds went over to the bernie sanders side. it looks like in this particular area, they're are putting more people on the clinton side. there are some o'malley supporters that are saying they clinton side. that way. group. they would not have the buying public -- the buying power of extra delegates. stacey: keep us posted on the count. we are some new numbers for each

47% of precincts reporting at this point where it ted cruz has 29%. but if i percent. mark ruby with 21%. ben carson 10%. steve: as he moved to the next grouping of four. everybody in the single digits. no surprises there. as he moved to the last three will folks still to present -- to present mike huckabee. reporter: is doing better than we thought he might at the beginning. but as he always said, pulls are yesterday's news. i think it speaks to his organization.

obama's people have said we copied the obama campaign strategy from 2008 to target voters and a very granular, micro level. he has talked to a lot of churches. while churches cannot formally endorse candidates. they have audiences much they are ready made organizing tools. stacey: we have talked about the democratic side. what about the republican side, who needs a win here? reporter: obviously if bush had a chance, he would need to. that ship sailed. for rubio to finish a strong third or even a second counts as a major victory for him.

for ted cruz -- donald trump or ted cruz? reporter: crews -- ted cruz's strategy is to be the most conservative guy in the race. the iowa caucuses are known as being. conservative party members. we see and high proportion of conservative evangelicals. ted cruz needs to realize the promise that he keeps making. if he wins this, he is taking a step in the direction. if he loses to from, his strategy may not be what he touted it to be. steve: let us get down to the marriott hotel. marcus mcintosh is standing by with the marco rubio campaign. marcus: that is right steve. you can see a lot has changed in the last 45 minutes. i'm going to step out of the

there was basically no one here we last checked in. more precious than actual article rubio supporters. now you see 50-70 people here. just moments ago, a staffer got up to the mic and created a lot of buzz. people were thinking that senator rubio was close to taking the stage and speaking. senator rubio is sitting at 21%. after 49 precincts have reported. with a cd the rubio numbers, there is lots of smiles. they think that this is a strong number three. they are saying this is just where they want their candidate to be. he is coming out of the caucus is very strong. not all precincts have reported. at this point, he looks strong. he is gone up from 18%. he is now sitting at 21%.

they are also saying senator rubio has been saying. he is a man who can change this country. he is the man who can get rid of obamacare. that is it from here. we're in a standby when senator rubio takes the stand behind the podium. we will have an update on what he says when he addresses this crowd. support has road to about 50-70.

(donkey sound) (elephant sound) there's a big difference between making noise, (tapping sound) and making sense. (elephant sound) (donkey sound) when it comes to social security, we need more than lip service. our next president needs a real plan to keep social security strong. (elephant noise) hey candidates. enough talk. give us a plan. (phone ringing) you can't deal with something, by ignoring it. but that's how some presidential candidates seem to be dealing with social security. americans work hard, and pay into it. so our next president needs a real plan to keep it strong.

hey candidates, answer the call already. there are many sides to basketball star an fashion icon russell westbrook. and with coverage in the middle of anywhere from u.s. cellular, he can find some new ones. like, farmer. russell's brussels. russell speaking. paleontologist. hashtag t-rex. park ranger. where am i? and t.v. spokesperson. that's my line. i got it. with u.s. cellular, you can do all the things you like, from the middle of anywhere. that is my line! steve: welcome back to the kcci coverage of the 26 in caucuses. -- 26 in caucuses. fairly content still leading.

ted cruz is still leading with 29% over donald trump with 25. margarita is at 21. -- marco rubio is at 21%. then carson is at 10%. here on the republican side, my could be is at 2%. chris christie and rick santorum have one person. -- 1%. cynthia: we have some really excited republicans who, p or to talk to us. they have some breaking news for us right now. we are excited to hear this.

excited that 59% of the precinct have reported. we have exceeded our record turnout. there is a lot of energy. it bodes very negatively for the iowa democrats in the fall. we have exceeded expectations. it is a huge knife for iowa republicans. cynthia: how many of them do you think are first-time caucus goers. >> i think there has to be able lots of first-time caucus goers. we are really excited about the enthusiasm. cynthia: do your true -- do you attribute this to, trumpet and ted cruz? >> you're seeing marco rubio, donald trump, then carson, donald trump, the top four.

i think this makes volumes for the excitement within our party. and the amount of activity and activist that we have brought. at as a party. cynthia: thank you so much. a record turnout here. more voters than ever before in caucuses tonight. we will be back with more bit. stacey: dennis i want to bring you in on this. dennis: i am interested in seeing his numbers. as i look in the results thus far. the iowa gop's record does not add up anywhere yet.

one hundred 21,005 at three -- 121,005 at three. i'm waiting for them to show up. with 60% in. we are not near that yet. steve: -- stacey: what also are you seeing here dennis? dennis: we are seeing a lot of support for ted cruz and the rule areas. we can associate that with the tea party folks, the conservative evangelicals. we have them on a map on there. the blue is strong. trump is doing well on the four coasts of iowa. ted cruz is doing well in the interior counties.

getting -- the -- a considerable amount of support in conservative districts of iowa. reporter: trump has been wrapping his arm around steve king. trump is still getting a lot of support of their as we look at the blue collar counties. steve: let us move on to eric hansen. eric: great timing steve. the precinct caucus is reading them out right now. >> they were trailed by representatives from her -- from both campaigns. they are satisfied with these numbers. bernie sanders at 246. hillary clinton with 462. eric: now what they need to do,

sitting here for two hours caucusing for hillary clinton. on the other side are those who are caucusing for bernie credit -- bernie sanders. with 246 and her supporters and 62 clinton supporters, approximately two thirds of the 15 candidates -- delegates will be going to hillary clinton. about a third of them will be going to bernie sanders. none will be going to martin o'malley. everybody is getting up and heading for the door. they have been in this room for two hours. the folks have started gathering here three-four hours ago. they are all kind of stretching. they have been here for so long. the temperature here is quite a bit warmer than they were when it started. they had to count everybody in the room. they came up with about 767 people in the room.

then they physically aligned on both sides. there are about 60 people in the o'malley camp. two thirds on one side one third on the other side. then they realigned about a half hour ago. during that time, the o'malley folks are trying to get a delegate for home and there trying to get a hundred 15 folks for o'malley. that did not happen. this is a two thirds of the o'malley group headed over to bernie sanders and a third headed over to the clinton folks. that's not do much to add to the total. the final results 462 voters for hillary clinton, 246 voters for bernie sanders. it has been a long night. we have folks from more than a dozen foreign countries watching this particular debate. there were some challenges because of a miscount. they are trying to count with

the folks are filing out of the room now. essentially the clinton folks were satisfied. the sanders folks were a little bit frustrated because they only got a third of the vote in this particular precinct. but precinct 62, it turns out about two thirds of the 15 hillary clinton. a third is going to go to bernie sanders. i guess that is how democracy works in central iowa. this is how we do it. we have been proud to be able to show you what is happening. this is one example of about 1800 62,000 -- 1862 places around the state. we are wrapping up the democratic caucus. steve: a beautiful job of working us through their. you should put him a structure.

you can be on the air around 430 and morning. the counting car, got a little bit of frustrating -- get got a little bit frustrating. if you wanted a youtube video to show people what the iowa precinct caucuses do, what we just had would be a great example of that. it shows the beauty of it, the complexity, because -- the frustration. steve: it was fascinating to watch. stacey: thank you dennis. we are going to take a break. our commitment 2016 coverage will continue one more time. this is a kcci 8 news special.

>> right now, all eyes on iowa. sen. rubio: if you caucus for me and i am the nominee -- gov. christie: police officer deserve to be supported by a president who have been in law enforcement. >> is going to be so much fun. steve: and common debates. ms. clinton: we're getting down to the last hours. mr. trump: it all doesn't matter if you don't caucus on monday. sen. sanders: we will win on monday night if there is a large turnout. stacey: welcome back to our commitment 2016 coverage. we have some new numbers to take

with 71% of precincts reporting, hillary clinton at 51%, bernie sanders at 49%. martin o'malley at 1%. steve: on the republican side, ted cruz still in the lead with -- in the league. marco rubio moving up a couple percentage points with 21%. ben carson still at 10%. rand paul, jeb bush, john kasich, carly fiorina all in a singng digits. as we move down the line to mike huckabee, chris christie, rick santorum all in the low single digits. stacey: now we want to check in with cynthia fodor. she is live in downtown des moines. cynthia: you just heard a few moments ago, republicans excited

also, democratic caucuses lined out the door. we have eric from the -- a republican strategist here in iowa. what are you hearing about turnout from the democrats? >> it has been high on our side, too. i tried to run to different caucus locations and get more forms. i heard the state chair for the republican party say they are having a terrific night. i think both parties are, and that is a good thing for iowa. cynthia: and people were enthusiastic. does this surprise you, the record turnout? >> no. what does surprise me is the strength that donald trump has over the eastern part of the state. an area we thought governor bush would be strong, maybe marco rubio.

i just heard the other report that martin o'malley suspended his campaign, and i think that is something that tom may have seen coming based on the 50% barrier that you have to reach. >> that is important news. he is an excellent candidate. we will see him in the future. i have been watching the numbers from the democratic side. hillary clinton has been doing very well in holding where she needs to be to win this photo finish. in some of the eastern counties, she is performing pretty well and that should be centered territory. it looks like it will go right down to the wire but it looks like hillary clinton by pulling off. cynthia: the o'malley supporters going for clinton or sanders, do you think that made a difference? >> i think that made a difference some way. you would have expected the o'malley people to go with clinton because of his prior support of her in 2008.

this could be a devastating night for jeb bush. >> he is pulling behind rand paul at this point. i think we are seeing senator rubio very strong. and he is taking a little bit of donald trump support. but he is gobbling up that support from those governors. he may have that clear establishment party path right now that takes them on to new hampshire and south carolina where he does well, and does well in his home state of florida. cynthia: thanks very much, we will be talking to you in a

stacey: a very earnest candidate. when i have seen him at events he was received warmly and politely, but it just didn't translate into poll numbers. there is always a certain matter of lightning striking, a certain magic. it never took with o'malley. at the same time, he has become known to a lot of people who never heard of him, and the democrats are still in the process of making their generational shift. the democrats don't have anybody equivalent to marco rubio or ted cruz, in their mid-40's. o'malley, i believe, is 52, 53. hillary clinton is i think 58, o'malley, 74. -- sanders, 74. only gave it a shot, and perhaps he will live to fight another day. steve: is this potentially benefit? -- who does this potentially benefit, sanders or clinton? dennis: good question. if you are supporting o'malley, you could say it is someone who didn't want support the front

at the same time, there are a lot of democrats who supported hillary clinton -- supported bernie sanders that they could see voting hillary clinton. steve: let's move over to drake university. todd magel with the hillary clinton campaign at the olmstead center. todd: they just opened the doors to the hillary victory party here on the second floor. we are going to kind of show you the crowd that is just coming in alter our right, your left. those are all network correspondents from abc, fox and nbc, and cnn. there are probably doesn't fall from iowa stations and other stations across the country. the feeling here is one of excitement. the phone to came at the door were cheering when they walked in. even though they were very close, they feel that they may have a real victory party here tonight. we talked to some of the clinton

they said she is at a des moines hotel, watching these results go in. as soon as they have a fairly competent feeling about where these numbers are, she will come over to drake university and either accept a victory or talk about defeat. eight years ago, it was a tough defeat. this year, they change their game and hope they have the kind of support. we are in a holding pattern here with the folks who have come in. we will be waiting and watching to see what happens here. as soon as we hear from hillary clinton, we will let you know. stacey: now we want to check in with laura terrell, live with the sanders campaign. laura: just asked todd said that everyone in the clinton campaign is confident tonight, everyone here at bernie sanders campaign is confident as well. as close as this race is, they say they feel the numbers will

we are in the holiday inn by the airport. that is where the bernie sanders campaign and supporters are gathering. we are told that, by the end of the night, this room is going to be packed with people and have kind of a party atmosphere. you know many bernie sanders events are like cap rallies or concerts, high enthusiasm. the trick is getting that enthusiasm out to caucus. bernie sanders is also getting some star power. we got to catch up with josh hutcherson. he is a famous actor from "the hunger games." he said typically he is a to vote percentage instead. >> when i started looking into bernie and his history, and how long he has been saying the same it. 30 years talking about the crisis in economics, he voted no

that bernie has a bigger picture. laura: a lot of energy in this room tonight. we will keep you updated from the bernie sanders campaign. we are told the senator is in the building, watching the results come in, and we will bring you all the latest updates. steve: let's go on out to the sheraton hotel in west des moines. ryan smith with the trump campaign. the latest results we have seen, 75% of the precincts. ryan, just curious about the mood in that room right now. ryan: we expect a capacity crowd sheraton hotel. i have to tell you, here on the risers for members of the media, i am going to go ahead and

a lot of people say they are hopeful. the mood out here is joyful. they say that their man donald trump will come out a winner tonight. some 750 people will fill up this ballroom and bring in up to 300 people who are able to stand outside in the hotel lobby. officials saying that caucus turnout is on a record-setting pace. many believe that helps the billionaire businessman donald trump. early exit polls right now see a net in that race between -- a net and that race between donald trump and ted cruz. they continue to make the pitch to voters. back out here live, when you break down from supporters, he is pulled better than any other candidate with mainstream conservatives. he also scores well, we are

caucus-goers. with that largely expected turnout, that is a benefit many believe, for donald trump. stacey: thank you very much. now, we want to check in with mark tauscheck, who was with the ted cruz campaign at the state fairgrounds. we have 66% of precincts reporting. at this point, ted cruz has 28% to donald trump's 25%. todd: anytime they do an update, we are getting a huge whhoop from everyone. we are getting close to the point where they can celebrate for real here. we have a full house. his campaign manager telling me right now that they are very excited. he said this proves that their hard work on the ground has paid off. no one can accuse ted cruz of not spending enough time in iowa.

apparently that paid off. senator cruz has really focused on hitting the ground. he has visited all 99 counties in iowa as of today, whereas donald trump focused on large events at big venues. cruz's national press person says that he will be here shortly, he is flying in. he went to cedar rapids to a precinct there, and he was so excited apparently he is decided to get another caucus location before he makes his way back here. he will be landing at international, we are told, within the hour. the way it looks now, this room is ready to explode. he said at the beginning of his campaign that he had to win iowa. he didn't want donald trump to get this momentum. right now, it is looking very

steve:v it is a three horse race on the republican side right now. crews, 28% -- cruz, 28%. we're going to go to marco rubio headquarters. marcus mcintosh is there. 22% support for marco rubio right now. marcus, what is the mood there? marcus: as you can imagine, the mood here is very excited. i tried to get my camera out to capture what the updated numbers showed. they show that marco rubio had 22% and there were cheers. i will get out of the way, because this crowd numbers probably more than 100 at this point. despite the fact that marco rubio is in third place, i have been in the crowd, mingling, talking to people, there is a sense of victory. they say from where he started to where he is today, they could not think of a better way to

out for the rest of the campaign trail. people are excited. they say he has been consistent in his message, consistent in what he was to do to change america. they are here to show their excitement and they want everyone to know, despite the fact that rubio started out way down in the polls, he is now in third place in the iowa caucuses and going strong at 22%. there is kind of a feeling of victory at this point, although there are still precincts left to be counted. they feel that if their candidate can hold third place, that is a victory. we will continue to follow this, and when senator rubio takes the stand, we will make sure to get back to you live.

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plus get $300 back. [ echoing ] just sayin'. (donkey sound) (elephant sound) there's a big difference between making noise, (tapping sound) and making sense. (elephant sound) (donkey sound) when it comes to social security, we need more than lip service. our next president needs a real plan to keep social security strong. (elephant noise) hey candidates. enough talk. give us a plan. steve: we are back with more 2016 caucus coverage. here are our latest results. in. very, very close one point race

martin o'malley suspended his campaign with just 1% support. results so far from the iowa precincts reporting. ted cruz in the league with 28%. donald trump, 25%. marco rubio, 22%. ben carson, 10%. dennis, i'm wondering, does this place at this point? dennis: the guy is supremely self-confident. "i'm a winner," he always says. sounding like charlie sheen. he will have to eat a little crow. he hinted at not being fully confident being in first the last day or two, but as we look at these results so far, we are looking really at a three-person race.

cruz and trumpet and rubio. at least to the results i looking at on the gop website, you have cruz, trump, and rubio in the low to mid 20's. no one else is over 10%. stacey: we just got ben carson addressing his supporters. let's listen in. dr. carson: he says, you have to undermine three principles. your spiritual life, your patriotism, and your morality. if you can undermine those things, america will collapse from within. we are in the process of collapsing from within if we

dirty tricks and lives. people who do that are still viable candidates for president of the united states and we accept it. that is the problem that is going on. in the bible, in proverbs, it says, if the king listens to wicked. if you permit that kind of thing it. that is what is going on our society right now. however, i think we can still fix it. i think we the people are the and the ability to fix it.

arbiters of what kind of nation we were going to have. and it means that people have to be very active, people have to be very informed so that they can't be manipulated. you look, for instance at our financial condition. it concerns me mightily because of the future for our children, grandchildren, all the ones coming after us. what can they expect? this is going to be the first generation in our history expected to do worse than their parents. that is the beginning of a decline that is going to continue on and on and less we intervene. but can just play it around the edges, we have to do something

what italy did, they were in the ago. italy decided to raise the retirement age because everyone the benefits. no one was real happy with that. but it kept them from going off the fiscal cliff and now people have adjusted to it. the longer you wait to make the adjustment, the more draconian those adjustments have to be. that is the kind of thing we have to think about now. we are passing on, to those who come after us, what is now a $19 trillion national debt. next year's time, it will be $20 trillion. that is a number that is too staggering to even comprehend.

steve: you have been listening to republican presidential candidate dr. ben carson. he has been out of the west des moines marriott speaking to his supporters. currently, he has 10% support with 10 -- -- 10% support. he is not conceding his campaign platform, saying that presidential candidates who are dealing into deceit and lies are still viable candidates. dennis: that's right. three of the top for republican candidates -- ted cruz, marco rubio, ben carson, have had a message of real fear about the future of america. the view that if the country doesn't elect a republican president in 2016, we may lose america as we know it. that is talking about an axis special threat to the country and the existence of the country and its values.

ben carson focuses on that strongly. here ted cruz talk about it and marco rubio as well. donald trump will say, we have problems, and that he says we will fix it. in a way, trump will say we have problems but we can take care of than if you elect me. these other fellows, and carson very much, are painting a bleak picture of the country in moral and cultural decline, which they believe is causing economic and national security decline. steve: we're going to go out to mark tauscheck. he is at the ted cruz campaign at the iowa state fairgrounds. mark: we have an exciting group of ted cruz supporters. we have not heard that ted cruz

won iowa from cbs and we are not reporting it yet. what do you think of these numbers? >> we are really excited about it. we have been working hard here in iowa for a long time. i have to say that this is evidence that the ground game that senator cruz has built as something that was great for us. we think this evidence that americans are tired of the track that we are on right now, and they believe that ted cruz is a candidate that they can trust, who will do what he says he will do, and go to washington and actually implement change and get this country back on track. mark: tilde something about that ground game, it was like precise surgery. there was a lot of research going into targeting specific iowans. >> we have a very strong data game. we knew neighborhood by neighborhood with the people were that we needed to reach out to.

-- volunteer sign-up for our campaign. we had over 1500 precinct captains to help with the caucus, and we had a representative from our campaign at every meeting in the state. it is a testament to the leaders we have had in our state working with us. matt schultz, former secretary of state. we had steve king. they have been warriors for us. we are so thankful for all of their work. iowa is so important, and senator cruz knew that from the beginning. he put a lot of resources and effort into iowa because we value the opinions of iowans and we value their votes. today, the senator finish the full grassley. again, he realizes how important the voters are to this process and we look forward to picking up this momentum and carrying it through.

wheelhouse. they came out, obviously -- [applause] there is. it. congratulations. what is his moment like for you? >> it is exhilarating. we spent so much time here. we're going to be sad to leave but on to new hampshire we go. mark: iowa was a must win, wasn't it? >> eyewall was a state we knew we had to perform well in. we build a national campaign. we are so grateful for what we have been able to accomplish. mark: the big question is when will senator cruz arrive here tonight? >> is en route. he came in from cedar rapids and he should be here hopefully in the next half-hour. mark: it was fun to share that

senator cruz has won iowa, on to new hampshire. this is according to cnn, again. cbs has not given kcci the results, but according to cnn, ted cruz has won the state of iowa. back to you guys. stacey: thank you very much. cnn has projected ted cruz to win iowa. our own entrance polling projected ted cruz's victory. dennis: organize, organize, organize, and get hot at the end. he got hot in december and held on in january. steve: it looked like he may have gotten a little too hot a little too early. the peak too soon. you don't want that. he managed to hold on.

you have as many candidates, you won in the sense that you had more than anyone else. using our entrance poll data, he had 27%, but that meant 73% of else. victory. stacey: it has been interesting because just in the last couple of weeks, he came out very strongly against the renewable fuel standard. governor branstad says a ted cruz candidates he would be terrible for iowa and yet it doesn't seem to have had any impact. dennis: it is astounding that governor branstad came out and said it wouldn't be good for iowa to vote for ted cruz because i can't recall him intervening in a caucus like that. it didn't seem to have any impact on ted cruz. it just shows you how important organization is here. steve: what does this mean for the donald trump campaign and

republicans and the national republican party that really wasn't all that excited about a ted cruz victory here in iowa or nationally? dennis: the national party doesn't care for crews or trump. some support cruz to stop trump, some the other way. you have a circumstance here in which cruz just worked really hard and had an organization. i will be interested to find out just how donald trump's ground game actually functions. it generally don't have retail politics at the big mass of events. stacey: we also have reports now that mike huckabee is reporting is get -- is suspending his campaign. steve: looking at the democratic side. we want to go over to laura terrell.

it is a net and neck race on the democratic side. laura: we could be here for a long time tonight. i have joined by simone standers -- simone sanders, no relation, but she is his national press secretary. what do you think about these numbers? >> we said from the beginning that if voter turnout was high, we thought we would be successful. motor turnout is extremely high here in iowa. record turnout all over, and it is not just young people. also were galvanized by the message of addressing the rink economy kept in place by a system of campaign finance. we are waiting to see, but at successful. laura: you mentioned that lines were just out the door to caucus

you said a lot of your volunteers told you it was absolutely crazy. >> we had volunteers and precinct captains reporting in, saying that people were in line at 630 and they were down the street, around the corner. there were people that did not get into their precinct locations until 7:15, 7:30. we saw points where people were printing new voter registration forms because they were running out. turnout was extremely high and we are proud that iowans came out to caucus tonight. laura: thank you so much, the bernie sanders. the rest of the night. stacey: now we want to check in

todd: about 15 minutes ago, they opened the doors. there is a lot of excitement for hillary here tonight. even though they are very close, the people we talked to say they are very excited about the fact that she is a hat and they hope they maintain this lead. we are told room capacity is about 450 people. it is a fairly small room, but they are going to pack it tonight. these people are hoping to hear from hillary as soon as possible. we are told she is watching the results. doesn't want to come down until it is sure that she is the winner here in iowa. we will have the latest what we hear from her coming up in a bit. stacey: talk, thank you so much. steve: let's take a look, if we can come at the republican numbers as we have the right now. mike huckabee has suspended his campaign.

out right now, cbn, now cbs calling the republican race for ted cruz. as we move on down the line, there are a bunch of folks in single digits. a lot of them probably don't have a hope of doing very well. you also see possibly suspending their campaign after the state of iowa? weijia: --dennis: you wonder what ben carson is going to do. that wasn't a concession speech but bumping up against that thought. he has raised a lot of money but he is spending a lot of money. can you afford to keep gas in the car to buy the plane ticket to keep going? i think that in the case of mike huckabee, i am not surprised. i would wonder what rick santorum is going to do. they are working that can serve in coming evangelical late --

lane as well. they just don't have any oxygen left over because of the newer folks, rubio and crews. i would say bush, casing, christie, rand paul, i think they are going to fight in new hampshire. stacey: there is always the big argument that the super back money could keep a candidate viable for a lot longer then iowa. dennis: i wondered, with the rise of the super packs, whether in fact that might diminish iowa's role. if you have a sugar daddy -- rick santorum had a sugar daddy in 2012. so did newt gingrich.

guy with billion, he can keep you going. didn't help scott walker. in that sense, at least thus far, i was still pulled some weight. steve: there is a lot of pac money that has to be used on other things then campaign expenditures. we need to go to the marco rubio campaign. marcus mcintosh is with that campaign. happen. no chance. they told us that because we offered too much optimism in a time of anger, we had no chance. they told us that because we didn't not the right

they told me that we had no chance because my hair wasn't great enough and my boots were too high. they told me i needed to wait my turn, that i needed to wait in line. but tonight, here in iowa, the people of this great state have sent a very clear message. after seven years of barack obama, we are not waiting any longer to take our country back. this is not a time for waiting. everything that makes this nation great now hangs in the balance. this is a time of need a president that will truly preserve and protect and defend the constitution of the united

constitution of the united states. this is the time for a president who will defend our second amendment rights. not a president who undermines them. this is the time for a president that will rebuild the u.s. military, because the world is a safer and a better place when the united states has the most powerful military in the world. this is no ordinary election. in 2016 is not just a choice between two political parties. 2016 is a referendum. it is a referendum on our -- and a people. there are only two ways forward. we can either be greater than we have ever been or we can be a great nation in decline. if bernie sanders or hillary clinton get elected, if they

if they win, obamacare becomes permanent. if they win, these unconstitutional executive orders become permanent. if they win, our military continues to decline. if they win, the balance of the supreme court will be controlled by liberal justices for a decade or longer. they cannot win. hillary clinton is disqualified from being the president of the united states. because she stored classified and sensitive information on her e-mail server because she thinks she's above the law. other clinton can never be commander-in-chief, does anyone who lies to the families of people who have lost their lives in the service of this country can never be commander-in-chief

so tonight, i thank you here in iowa. stacey: we have been listening to marco rubio addresses supporters. he is coming in as a close third place. dennis, iowa is all about expectations. did he meet expectations, exceed expectations? weijia: -- dennis: i think he exceeded expectations. as you said, he came in a close third place. cruz, trump, rubio, they make up about 70%, close to three quarters of the total republican preference vote.

steve: just listening to senator rubio's comments here, everything about the democrats, mostly about hillary clinton. that have to be purposeful because he didn't say a word about donald trump or ted cruz. dennis: that's right. at what level, they are the party that is out of power and it is their job to say things are terrible for the party in power. it sounds like he is running against barack obama but of course he is going to wrap president obama or around hillary clinton if she is the nominee. stacey: he said if clinton or sanders were nominated or elected, it would be a great nation in decline. dennis: that's what i was saying about this foreboding darkness, that if we didn't elect a republican in 2016, we would lose the america we know. in that sense, cruz and rubio and carson are singing from the

steve: let's go to the donald trump campaign and ryan smith. it looks like trump is going to come in second tonight. ryan: very loud, expressive coming from the crowd just a few moments ago as we all learned the iowa caucus falling for his rival, texas senator ted cruz. we were on the ground floor that moment, getting immediate reaction from his supporters. everyone remains very confident the campaign is still viable and strong. voters here believe the momentum will go forward from iowa to the new hampshire primary and then on to south carolina. some even believe, including state senator brad done of urbandale, that trump finishing in the top three is in itself a success.

supporters inside the ballroom. we are waiting and no word on that yet. steve: thank you very much. now, we want to go downtown to capitol square and cynthia fodor. cynthia: i am with matt strong, the former chairman of the iowa republican party. watching this now, ted cruz declared the winner. ground game that he had talked about for months and months? the numbers were incredible. 12,000 volunteers, 2000 door knocks. >> as someone who had three students at our door and ankeny, it validates that the iowa way works. spending time in the state, letting iowans look you in the

all of those things, the trump campaign did not do. that is the big story. someone like donald trump, who has built his whole brand on being a winner, how does he go forward into new hampshire and south carolina where he is leading, but with this big loss in the hawkeye state? cynthia: and hecynthia: didn't ever want to talk about being number two. >> he spent a considerable amount of time talking about the polls, he talks about winning deals. it is going to be a challenge for donald trump going forward. i don't think clearly we have seen the last of him. yet has a strong organization in south carolina. if history tells us anything, momentum can swing dramatically.

cynthia: marco rubio doing much better than anyone expected. >> in my precinct, up and ankeny, we saw over a 50% increase in turnout compared to 2012. marco rubio ran away with our precinct. cruz finishing a distant second. i think that is a testament to him being disciplined and focusing on the areas of the state that he thought could best deliver his coalition. he needs to separate himself going into new hampshire, and it is a nice little boost of momentum. cynthia: thanks, matt.

stacey:

the 2016, the iowa caucus -- two commitment 2016. we have numbers to look at. by the way, the estimated turnout is more than 185,000. how about that? 90% caucus is reporting. ted cruz is the projected winner. donald trump, 24%. marco rubio, we heard him addresses supporters just a few minutes ago, 23%. ben carson, 9%. steve: rand paul, 5%. jeb bush, 3%. carly fiorina, 2%. mike huckabee, who has ended his campaign, 2%. chris christie looking forward to new hampshire, and rick santorum coming in with 1%. it looks like donald trump is

mr. trump: thank you very much. thank you. [applause] i love you people. thank you. unbelievable. i have to start by saying that i absolutely love the people of iowa. unbelievable. on june 16, when we started this journey, there were 17 candidates. i was told by everybody, do not go to iowa. you could never finished even in the top 10. i said, but i know a lot of people in iowa, i think they will really like me. let's give it a shot. i said i have to do it.

i want to tell you something, i am just honored. i want to congratulate ted and i want to congratulate all of the incredible candidates, including mike huckabee, who has become a really good friend of mine. congratulations to everybody. [applause] i want to thank all of the folks that worked with us. we had a great team and will continue to have a great team. we're just so happy with the way everything worked out. most importantly, i have to thank my wife and laura and eric and vanessa and don. they went out and they were doing speeches. in fact, i think you did about six beaches. i just want to thank my family. they have been so amazing and supportive. we have had every indication. we have a poll that we are 28

hampshire, we love south carolina. we are leaving tonight, and tomorrow afternoon we will be in new hampshire and that will be something special. we are going to be up here next weekend. i think we're going to be proclaiming victory, i hope. i don't know who is going to win between bernie and hillary, i don't know what is going to happen with hillary, she has other problems may be bigger with the problems she has got in terms of nomination. but we have had so many different indications that we beat her and would be her easily. we will go on to get the room not -- to get the republican nomination and we will go on to easily beat hillary or bernie or whoever they throw up there. iowa, we love you, we thank you. you are special. we will be back many, many times. in fact, i think i might come

i love it. thanks everybody. [applause] stacey: you have been listening to donald trump address his supporters after a close second-place finish. trump says he is honored to have won second place. he congratulated the other candidates for tonight's competition. he says it is on to new hampshire. with a new poll, he says he is 28 points ahead. steve: he sounds like a pretty happy guy considering he's the guy that likes to finish first. dennis: that's right. i think he is not throwing a tantrum, not having a fit. he is basically saying he did as well as he could. i'm sure he is disappointed, but he will see it through at least new hampshire. the question is, what he continued to see it beyond new

it is hard to say at this point. he is still in it and willing to play. stacey: now we have got some really tight numbers on the democratic side. 89% of precincts reporting. i'm not sure that this gives the full picture. steve: dennis has an entrance polling numbers that shows this is fractions of a percentage point. dennis: i think we're looking at the state delegate -- the state delegate equivalents. that shows you how close they are in terms of the other numbers there. the democratic website itself, using those percentages, shows clinton at 49.8% and sanders at 49.6%. stacey: does that surprise you? dennis: there was some thought that bernie sanders could possibly win iowa. there was also the issue of whether his support was too

but at least he is holding his own very well here. it is still showing that there campaign. support of that map we're showing right now. over east central iowa, iowa city, and then the quad cities. you move up to a looks like just north of polk county, it looks like you have story county, where you would expect young people to turn out. it looks like they are turning out tonight for bernie sanders. dennis: story county showing 58.3%, sanders over clinton. pretty much what we expected in those college towns. of course, if you look at that map, you see that the darker color represents secretary

least as far as we can tell, then the sanders counties. stacey: we want to check in with todd magel, who is at the hillary clinton campaign tonight out at drake university. what is the mood of the room now, todd? todd: people have been chanting, cheering, booing donald trump when he was speaking. they are very excited even though the numbers are very close. bonnie campbell, former iowa attorney general. a supporter of hillary clinton for a long time. you have seen these numbers. what do you make of this? >> i like iowans -- how like iowans to make it all interesting. i'm not sure i imagine this. but i have to say that i am very proud of hillary. you know i am a hillary

she came to iowa and gave it her all, laid out a plan for our country's future, and did it in the face of very serious opposition from senator sanders, but also a cast of republican candidates and millions of karl rove's dollars. i'm glad she is still standing and i'm really proud of her. we really need to remember, this is the first step in a very long process. i expect to watch hillary clinton take the oaths of office as president next year. todd: thank you very much, buying campbell, for joining us. she is part of the optimistic support that the room is giving hillary clinton. but of course, we are still waiting for a possible victory

steve: in fact, the numbers are so close right now that they are splitting those two folks. this? dennis: it had become essentially a two-person race despite a gallant campaign at martin o'malley way. this type. -- this tight. steve: let's get over to bernie sanders campaign with laura terrell. laura: it is hard to hear you because it is so loud in this room. lots of energy, people chanting usa, usa, "bernie, burning -- "bernie!"

we are told he is upstairs watching the numbers come in. we talked to his national press secretary. she said that although the margin is so thin, she said that they are very confident they can win this race. we have heard that turnout has been extremely high for caucuses, and his press secretary says that that is a win-win for bernie sanders. because turnout is high, she thinks that he can go all the way and be hillary clinton tonight -- and beat hillary clinton tonight. we will be watching as things happen. right now, an enthusiastic crowd that wants to keep chanting. we are told he is not going to come down until he knows if he has won or not. steve: thank you very much. we are going to break away for just a moment. we'll be right back right after