Rubio’s state crisscross bends norms for caucus campaign

Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa

Marco Rubio is all over the map in Iowa. Quite literally.

Having spent little time in the state’s rural Christian conservative northwest, the Republican presidential candidate dropped in to Sioux County for the first time on a solo campaign trip last week, then bounced across the state two days later to speak with some of Iowa’s more fiscally conservative voters in the east.

“I’m going to trust that he knows what he’s doing,” state Rep. John Wills, who supports Rubio, said after his campaign stop at the Christian Dordt College in GOP-rich Sioux Center. “I hope he gets the chance to get up here again. Northwest Iowa is where you win.”

Rubio began an uninterrupted nine-day run Saturday ahead of Iowa’s lead-off caucuses next Monday. His itinerary includes college towns, larger cities and rural outposts.

After months of promising that his campaign was on the verge of ramping up in early-voting states, Rubio appears to be following through in the Iowa homestretch.