Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) believes supporters of Herman Cain will “come home” and throw their votes behind her in the upcoming primaries.
Speaking Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Ms. Bachmann discussed Mr. Cain’s suspension of his campaign, saying she believes his exit will help her capture the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.
“Herman Cain brought a really important exciting energetic voice to the race and I think a lot of people are going to be very sorry to see him go,” Ms. Bachmann said, one day after Mr. Cain announced his suspension.
“We’ve been talking with the Herman Cain campaign and I look forward to having a full conversation with him,” Ms. Bachmann added.
Her statements were not reflective of the results of recent national polls, she has been placing near the bottom of the race and the majority voters who voted for Mr. Cain in earlier polls had selected former House Speaker Newt Gingrich as their second choice.
Mr. Cain announced that he will make an endorsement of one of the candidates, but did not indicate who. He is expected to endorse Mr. Gingrich because of their relationship over the past decade, and the former House speaker has also talked highly of Mr. Cain throughout his campaign.
He said he would even consider Mr. Cain as a vice president running mate at one point.
The day after the latest accusation of sexual misconduct surfaced against Mr. Cain last week, the Bachmann campaign team tweeted a photo of trucks outside of the Georgia Republican’s Iowa campaign headquarters, calling them “moving trucks.” The trucks were actually delivering campaign supplies and Mr. Cain’s campaign staff lashed out at the Bachmann team for the inadvertent tweet.
Regardless, Ms. Bachmann appears confident that Cain supporters will vote for her because her policy views are more similar to his than any of the other candidates.
“One thing that we’ve seen is that a lot of Herman Cain supporters have been calling our office,” the Minnesota Rep. said Sunday.
“They’ve been coming over to our side. I think part of that is because people see that I’m the Tea Party candidate in the race. They saw Herman Cain as an outsider. I think they see that my voice would be the most reflective of his,” she added.
Despite her low poll numbers, Ms. Bachmann believes she will win the Iowa caucuses on January 3rd, claiming that Iowa voters are still largely “undecided” at this point.
“As Tea Partiers see where the candidates stand, they’re going to come home. And I think on January 3rd in Iowa their going to come home and vote for me in that caucus,” Ms. Bachmann said.