Pence to Iowans: “This race is on.”

PROLE - Texas Sen. Ted Cruz joined Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence at a Warren County farm Thursday to urge Iowans to think about jobs, freedom and security when they go to the polls next week to decide a pivotal election that carries long-term implications for the nation.

'This race is on,” Pence told about 325 supporters who gathered for a campaign rally on a bright fall day in a machine shed at Bruere Farms in rural Warren County. He scoffed at recent predictions by what he called biased media that Democrat Hillary Clinton would win next Tuesday, saying he is seeing 'amazing” momentum for GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump that will carry Republicans to victory.

'It's a choice between two futures,” said Pence, the governor of Indiana. Either the path of big government regulation, taxation and corruption under Clinton, he said, or Trump's vision to make America stronger and more secure both home and abroad with a revitalized economy fueled by pro-job trade policies, lower taxes, less regulation and ethics reform designed to 'drain the swamp” in the nation's capital.

Cruz and Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, joined Pence in calling for Congress and the next president to replace and repeal Obamacare, citing higher premiums and rosy promises that never materialized under health-care reforms put in place by President Obama and congressional Democrats.

'If you're premiums have dropped $2,500, vote for the Democrats,” said Cruz, who finished ahead of Trump in Iowa's Feb. 1 first-in-the-nation nominating caucuses. 'If not, if your premiums have gone up under this train wreck that is Obamacare, then vote for the Republicans and throw the bums out.”

Cruz, who drew criticism in July when he did not endorse Trump at the GOP national convention in Cleveland after a contentious primary battle before announcing his backing two months later, was surgical in his remarks Thursday in bashing Clinton without mentioning Trump at the rally headlined by Pence.

'Putting a Republican in the White House and keeping a Republican Senate is the whole enchilada,” Cruz told the gathering. 'In the last election Barack Obama won the state of Iowa. But I can tell you right now that, thanks to the men and women across this state, Hillary Clinton ain't winning Iowa.”

King, on the other hand, was more than willing to sing Trump's praising, telling those assembled 'I'm 100 percent, all the way, full bore, all in with both feet for Donald Trump.”

Pence punctuated the day's proceedings by urging attendees to 'go vote” and then 'do all you can do” to encourage others to do likewise with five days remaining to deliver a victory for Trump and Republicans up and down the ticket.

'At this point it's all about turnout,” said Cruz, who was one of 17 Republicans who sought their party's presidential nomination in an election that he called 'a wild ride.”

'It has been something else and we are coming down to the closing stretch and I'll tell you, the stakes have never been higher for our country,” the Texas senator added.

Iowa Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald, a West Des Moines Democrat, issued a statement on behalf of the Clinton campaign in response to the GOP rally, saying 'Iowans are overwhelmingly voting early for Hillary Clinton because they know she will build an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top.

'Working families simply don't trust Donald Trump who has a disturbing record of not paying his workers, makes his products overseas, and continues to support tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires like himself,” Fitzgerald added.