Ivanka Trump, shown here at Drake University, in Des Moines, on January 28th, and other members of Donald’s family have been drumming up support in advance of the Iowa caucus. PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREW HARNIK / AP

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Whether Donald Trump wins in Iowa tonight or not, election officials in years to come might make use of the video that his daughter Ivanka made to get out the vote in that state. Sitting in a bright, modern apartment, wearing pink and gold, and radiating fun, Ivanka goes through the tedious mechanics of the caucus process. Supposedly tedious, that is. The whole thing, it turns out, is “very exciting.” Also, "it should only take around half an hour, so—very, very quick” and “really easy to do.” When Ivanka notes that the ballot is secret, it sounds like a secret that she and the viewer might share, though the point may be to alleviate any worries Trump supporters have about explaining their votes to the neighbors. (The Democratic Party's process is less anonymous.) Ivanka has her own fashion line, and she knows how to sell pretty things; she also knows how to sell her father’s candidacy, bundled as it is in ugly rhetoric. Civic authorities of the future will have to edit out the line “You just write down the name Trump,” but the video is a cheerful and efficient piece of voter education. It makes an evening spent in a Des Moines schoolhouse sound glamorous. One might even get a chance to meet Ivanka. "I’m going to be in Iowa, my father’s going to be in Iowa, my brothers are going to be in Iowa,” she says. “We’ll all be there at various caucus locations, and we really hope to see you."

The family does seem to be everywhere in Iowa. This morning, Donald Trump called in to “Good Morning America”; his sons Donald, Jr., and Eric were on the show’s temporary set inside the state house in Des Moines. Donald, Jr., explained that Trump would have run for President sooner, but he was waiting until he could trust the kids with the business—“he’s way too loyal a guy” to put his employees’ livelihoods at risk. Late last week, the brothers went bird hunting with the son of Iowa’s Republican governor. Eric told the Times’s Maggie Haberman that everything his father “touches turns to gold,” as a dog ran back and forth with dead pheasants. (Eric "killed three birds with three shots,” Haberman wrote.) Years of big-game safaris turn out to have been preparation for the brothers’ testimony to their father’s Second Amendment absolutism. Trump, in appearances across the state, tells crowds that their stepmother, Melania Trump, was the one who told him that if he ran he would win—“She’s my best pollster”—then calls her onto the stage for a quick hello. Melania is also on newsstands everywhere, in a cover story for Us magazine that promises to reveal “The Donald Only I Know.” It doesn’t do that, but it does underscore her compelling self-containment. She has plenty of political opinions, she tells the interviewer, but “I don’t discuss politics,” adding, “That’s my husband’s job.” In a sidebar with her byline on it, she writes, “We have a strong faith in the family. We are Christian. I was baptized in Slovenia. Barron” (her son with Trump) “was baptized in the church where we got married—actually, 11 years ago yesterday. We go to church whenever we can and also for the holidays—Easter, Christmas.”

The exact nature of Trump’s religious commitment, which has been disputed, is the subject of what may be the most blunt of Trump's family-themed testimonials. In a video that the candidate posted on Instagram over the weekend, he says, “I really appreciate the support given to me by the evangelicals. They’ve been incredible. Every poll says how well I’ve been doing with them. And, you know, my mother gave me this Bible, this very Bible”—he holds it up for the camera—“many years ago. In fact, it’s her writing, right here. She wrote the name, and my address. And it’s just very special to me.” Then he thanks “the evangelicals” again. The video suggests that this is all anyone needs to know about Trump’s sense of faith. His late mother, Mary Trump, gave him a Bible. He has definitely opened it, because he knows what she wrote on the flyleaf. Trump, who recently referred to Second Corinthians as “two Corinthians,” is not going to waste anyone’s time explaining his conception of Christian duty, or talking about having a servant’s heart. But if someone wants him to wave a Bible, he happens to own one, and it, like his buildings, has his name on it.

The rest of the Trumps don’t go into much more detail when it comes to policy. They love Donald Trump; he is a great father and husband; they will work for him. There are Trumps whom we have seen less of (Tiffany, his daughter with his second wife, Marla) and Trumps who’ve had trouble with him (the children of his older brother). But, on the whole, the members of the Trump family have been a glossy, determined sales force, as disciplined as Melania’s smile. They plead a lack of expertise in his more crude proposals, like excluding Muslims from the country—what would they know about anything other than his greatness? Most of all, their presence is evidence that Trump really wants to close this deal, and win.

"And Ivanka is about eight and a half months pregnant!” he said in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on Sunday, as he beckoned his daughter and her husband, Jared Kushner, onstage. "And the doctor said it would absolutely be much better if you didn’t make this trip—and she’s very tough, by the way, I have to tell you. Right, Jared?” There was a digression, in which he told the crowd what a nice young man Kushner was; he had a Harvard degree and he was in the real-estate business. (“Smart.”) Then Trump turned back to Ivanka. "So, wait a minute, politically, wouldn’t it be great if she had her baby in Iowa? Wouldn’t that be great? Wouldn’t that be unbelievable? That would guarantee our victory.” He could hardly be heard over the cheering, as Ivanka smiled and laughed. She took the microphone, praised her father’s making-America-great-again abilities, and then reminded everyone to get out and caucus Monday night. It would be so easy.