Vice President Joe Biden. (file photo)

Vice President Joe Biden. (file photo)

Vice President Joe Biden spoke with Radio Iowa late this afternoon, with 10 hours of voting already done in Iowa and four hours yet to go, to make one last pitch for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Bruce Braley.

“It’s obviously close and it’s all about turnout and any chance I get to be on a radio show to say, ‘Go vote, there’s still a couple of hours,'” Biden said. “…It’s going to be close and it’s going to get down to who shows up.”

Democratic candidates like Braley have been running in a year when President Obama’s low popularity ratings have been a drag on their candidacies. Biden said he’s advised Braley and others to focus on economic issues and “talk about the things that people understand.”

“Overwhelmingly the American people and the people of Iowa support the position we have taken,” Biden says. “So my advice…having run for the senate seven times and won seven times is focus on the issues. Talk about the things that affect your state. The Republicans in the House won’t support infrastructure spending when that used to be a bipartisan Republican position…You know, the minimum wage used to be bipartisan. The last time it was raised it was led by Republicans in the Senate.”

Biden said 2016 is “light-years away” and there’s “plenty of time for anyone contemplating” a run for the White House to jump in the race by “early” next summer.

“But in the meantime there’s an awful lot to get done,” Biden said. “No matter who controls the senate, the president and I are determined to continue to build on education, job training, infrastructure — just creating jobs.”

Biden said a Republican senator from a southern state called him today to set up a private meeting once the election is over with Biden and four Republican senators.

“Because the one message everybody’s gotten, whether they’re a Democrat or a Republican, is they don’t want people going to congress who are refusing to get anything done,” Biden said. “And so I think that message is coming across that no matter what the outcome of the election of the senate is, there are going to be a lot of people ready to actually compromise and deal with the things that affect the economy.”

AUDIO of Biden’s interview with Radio Iowa, 6:00