Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann was back in Iowa today, urging conservatives to stay the course with her campaign.
“Every four years conservatives are told we have to get around a candidate that we’re told is electable, right?” Bachmann asked a crowd in Cedar Rapids. “We’re told the conservative is the candidate who is not electable. We’re told only the moderate candidate in the race is electable, but that isn’t true.”
Bachmann won the Iowa Straw Poll in August, but her candidacy has faded as the national spotlight has settled on perceived front-runners Mitt Romney and Rick Perry. Bachmann, who began pushing this “don’t settle” message last Friday, finished last in this past weekend’s Florida straw poll. That’s not a concern for Jennifer Bioche, one of about 50 people who attended today’s Bachmann rally in Cedar Rapids.
“I wouldn’t rule her out yet,” Bioche said. “I think she’s sort of the ‘Little Engine that Could’ of the Republican Party.”
Bachmann’s “underdog” status is appealing to Bioche.
“Somebody who really represents coming from the bottom up, who isn’t afraid to kind of take on the bigger names,” Bioche said.
The Cedar Rapids rally was Bachmann’s only public event in Iowa.