Grant Rodgers

grodgers@dmreg.com

BOONE, Ia. - Martin O'Malley is spending his last days on the Iowa campaign trail making a simple plea to Iowans: "Hold strong" on caucus night to make his long-shot candidacy viable.

Despite spending more days in Iowa than either of his rivals, the former Maryland governor and Democratic hopeful saw his polling drop to just 3 percent in The Des Moines Register/Bloomberg News Iowa Poll released Saturday — fueling questions about whether he'll meet the 15 percent threshold at each precinct needed to win a delegate.

But standing in a Boone home to kick off a volunteer phone bank on Saturday night, O'Malley said he wants supporters to lobby their friends and neighbors on caucus night to keep the party's primary contest a three-person race.

"I want you to hold strong for that mom and dad who are working three jobs between the two of them and still sweating over how to split up the bills over the kitchen table at night once the kids are in bed," he said in a portion of his stump speech that's been added in recent days. "I want you to hold strong for that senior citizen who worked her whole life and played by the rules and now is finding she has to choose between her medicine and her groceries. We are already a great country, but we have to become a stronger country."

Meeting with reporters, O'Malley pointed to the results of a recent mock caucus at Drake University where he and rival Bernie Sanders tied in their delegate count, beating Hillary Clinton, as evidence of support for him that remains undetected in polls. The former governor also argued that the recent CNN Democratic town hall allowed Iowans to hear more from him than they did in the party's debates.

"I believe a lot of people in Iowa said, 'We'd like to hear more from the guy we didn't get to hear from in those other debates,' " he said. "So I think this race has only just begun."

Packed into a dining room, the audience cheered at O'Malley's calls for winning equal pay for women and boosting the country's clean energy economy. Iowa State University education professor Ellen Fairchild, 62, said after the event she was convinced to caucus for O'Malley because of his environmental plan that calls for powering America's electrical grid fully on renewable energy by 2050.

Fairchild told the Register at an O'Malley event in Ogden in September that she was trying to decide between the former governor and Sanders. She finally decided on O'Malley partly because he lacks the "baggage" of his rivals. Sanders, for instance, will be attacked by Republicans for his "democratic socialist" label, Fairchild said.

"Republicans are going to pull out the guns," she said. "I don't think they can do that with O'Malley."

During an evening stop at his Des Moines headquarters, O'Malley spoke to more than 100 people. His sister, Bridget Hunter, was in the audience after flying from Virginia to Iowa on Wednesday to help with final volunteer efforts. Hunter said she'd volunteered or worked for each of her brother's campaign since his first unsuccessful state senate run in 1990.

"We all kind of like getting invited back to mom's for Christmas dinner, so that's kinda-sorta the price for admission," she said with a laugh. "It's what family does. We support Martin."

AT THE EVENTS

SETTING: The house of a supporter who was hosting a volunteer phone bank for O'Malley. Later in the evening, O'Malley visited his campaign headquarters in Des Moines.

CROWD: More than 50 people, including several students visiting the state from Emerson College in Boston. More than 100 people in Des Moines.

REACTION: The crowd applauded several times for O'Malley. He took several selfies with students and supporters after finishing his stump speech.

WHAT'S NEXT: O'Malley will be in Johnston, Cedar Rapids and Waterloo on Sunday.