Campaigns promise steady stream of surrogates for Clinton, Trump

CEDAR RAPIDS - Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton haven't been strangers to Iowans and their campaigns promise they will be back - often - over the next 98 days.

On the days they aren't campaigning in Iowa it's likely someone will be traveling the campaign trail for them.

Monday, it was Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow who was visiting Democrats' coordinated campaign office in Cedar Rapids to encourage Clinton volunteers to make phone calls now so they can celebrate the first woman president come January.

'It's going to be a beautiful day - a little cooler,” Stabenow said about the inauguration. 'And you will have helped make that happen.”

Stabenow may have been Clinton's first surrogate of the general election campaign, but she won't be the last for either candidate.

'Plentiful and often,” Trump Iowa Director Eric Branstad said Monday. Beginning soon, before the Iowa State Fair, he said, the Trump children, personalities and politicos such as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich are likely to show up for the GOP nominee.

'The closer we get to Election Day, they'll be surrogates here almost every day,” Branstad said.

It may seem that Iowans would be spoiled by their access to the candidates themselves. The Clinton campaigns has indicated she will visit Iowa soon and Trump was in Cedar Rapids July 28 and will be in Des Moines. Friday.

Clinton spent 42 days in Iowa in the run-up to the first-in-the-nation caucuses and Trump visited for 34 days. However, Branstad said surrogates still serve a purpose.

'They help share and send that message from their personal perspective how they know, how they respect Mr. Trump's leadership,” he said.

That's what Stabenow was doing for Clinton.

'As a colleague, as someone who has known her for close to 30 years, I understand who she is as a woman, as a policymaker, as someone who is incredibly qualified to be president,” she said.

In addition to vouching for the 'official” Clinton, Stabenow said she can 'tell the stories of what I have observed and why I support her.”

Stories like Clinton joining other female senators - Democratic and Republican - for regular dinners, hosting a baby shower for a GOP senator or talking about wanting grandchildren and, as a fellow United Methodist, Stabenow said, talking about potluck suppers and 'a dish to pass.”

'Obviously, the candidate is the most important thing, but what I can do is to add to the depth of the importance of the election and the issues,” Stabenow said.