DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republican Michele Bachmann is focusing her presidential campaign on Iowa, having dipped in national polls since Texas Gov. Rick Perry entered the race last month.
The Minnesota congresswoman has struggled since winning the Iowa straw poll in August. This week she reshuffled her campaign’s top leadership and was scarcely heard in Wednesday’s national debate.
Bachmann plans to return to Iowa this weekend, and she aims to spend much of the coming months in the caucus state, where she is popular among evangelical conservatives and tea party activists.
Bachmann hopes a win in the Iowa caucuses next year can vault her into the South Carolina primary, the first in the South.
That strategy comes with a price. She is largely forgoing a campaign in New Hampshire.
