Big Iowa test for Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump today

Months into their White House campaigns, US presidential candidates on Sunday made a final frenzied push to persuade voters before Iowa kicks-off the nomination process.

Democrat Hillary Clinton, fearful of a 2008 repeat when she was beaten to the punch in Iowa by an upstart Barack Obama, was leaving nothing to chance, stumping in the heartland this weekend as her main rival Senator Bernie Sanders did the same, seeking to deny her yet another shot at history.

Republican Donald Trump and his nearest rival Ted Cruz, meanwhile, made unmasked appeals to Iowa’s evangelical conservatives so important in the first-in-the-nation contest on Monday.

The three Democrats and 12 Republicans, aiming to be their party’s 2016 torchbearer, are leaving it all on the field in Iowa, hosting dozens of events across the state as they gear up for Monday’s debut vote in the presidential marathon.