Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis shrugged off the results of the final poll in Iowa before caucus day, saying Sunday that his supporters were committed and would turn out in sub-zero temperatures.
And he dismissed questions about whether his campaign was heading for disaster after he was forecast to finish in third place on Monday.
That is despite gambling huge resources in the state, where he visited every one of its 99 counties.
‘We’re going to do well on Monday,’ he said on CNN’s ‘State of the Union.
‘Our voters are very motivated. I think it is very hard to poll an Iowa caucus period.’
Ron DeSantis was on CNN on Sunday morning to defend his campaign after the final poll before the Iowa caucuses showed him slumping to third place in the crucial state
The NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll was conducted Jan. 7-12 with 705 likely Republican caucus goers. Its margin of error is plus-minus 3.7 percentage points
READ MORE: How final Iowa poll is bad news for DeSantis AND Haley
Republicans will gather at school gyms, front rooms and church halls on Monday evening to pick their favored candidate.
It is the first real test of who is doing best with voters after a year of campaigning.
The result can make or break presidential campaigns.
The hugely anticipated NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll published Saturday gave Donald Trump a 28-point lead.
And it showed Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, overtaking DeSantis.
That will be a huge blow for the Florida governor if it is replicated in the caucus results Monday.
But there are signs that his vast ground game could still have a role to play.
The poll found that his supporters are the most likely to turn out on the day and caucus.
Among DeSantis supporters, 62 percent said they will definitely turn up. The figure falls to 56 percent among Trump supporters and is only 51 percent for Haley.
‘And so these are folks … are very motivated. We have spent a lot of time in Iowa because we’ve gone door-to-door getting people to commit to caucus to us’ he said, as he brushed off the idea that a poor result might mean the end of his campaign.
DeSantis has a big ground game. It will be put to the test on Monday. Eli Weltman of Never Back Down, an independent group backing DeSantis, talks to a voter in Marion on Wednesday
‘We’ve got a huge number of people that have committed to caucus and we expect these are the people that turn out. So there’s a lot of excitement on the ground.
‘We’re in this for the long haul.’
But it was not supposed to be like this. DeSantis’ conservative and Christian credentials were meant to give him a lift in Iowa and a chance to take on Trump, before the race heads to New Hampshire and its more moderate Republicans.
Haley is challenging Trump there for the win, with DeSantis trailing badly. A heavy defeat there after a bad result in Iowa would make it very hard for him to continue.
DeSantis said he would fight every state.
‘My view would be if you’re in it to win it, you got to compete for every single delegate,’ he said.
Iowa’s caucus format requires voters to show up in person. Bitter weather is complicating the whole process and forecasters predict the coldest Iowa caucus night ever – with temperatures down to minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
The final Iowa poll gave Donald Trump a 28-point lead over second placed Haley. That puts him on course for a record-breaking win if he gets anywhere close to that on Monday
Trump campaign insiders admit their biggest problem may be complacency, with supporters staying home because of the former president’s apparently insurmountable lead.
And the Saturday poll also suggests that Haley’s support may be soft, with much of her backing drawn from Democrats and independents, who will have jump through the bureaucratic hurdle of registering as a Republican in order to attend a caucus.
That leaves DeSantis hoping his big investment can still return the sort of result that allows him to fight on.
‘We’re telling our supporters: You go out, you bring some friends and family. That is going to pack a big punch,’ he said.
Commentators said the poll suggested DeSantis was struggling badly.
‘This is a tough poll for Gov. DeSantis, who has bet the house on Iowa,’ said Jimmy Centers, a Republican strategist who is unaligned in this race.
‘The good news is that many Iowans are leaving the door open to changing their minds, or haven’t settled on a candidate yet.
‘But, voters generally like aligning with a winner, or a candidate on the rise – neither of which he appears to be.’