Trump to seek votes, dollars Tuesday in Clive

Donald Trump is in the Des Moines area Tuesday in an effort to nab votes and dollars at a fundraiser that could be one of the biggest in Iowa campaign history.

After speaking at a public rally at 7 Flags Event Center at noon, the Republican presidential nominee will head to a high-dollar fundraiser in West Des Moines where a VIP roundtable and candidate photo op come with a ticket price of up to $50,000 per couple.

Lower-cost tickets are $25,000 or $10,000 per couple. A $2,700 "Trump Train" membership comes with lunch and $1,000 buys entrance and a meal only.

The luncheon, hosted by Trump's Iowa campaign chairman Eric Branstad and prominent Iowa conservatives Gary Kirke, Bruce Rastetter, Cam Sutton and Mike Whalen, rivals a 2012 Mitt Romney event that at the time was called the biggest campaign fundraiser in Iowa history. That brought in close to $2 million for the then-Republican candidate.

About 280 tickets to that event were sold for $2,500 to $75,000, according to a Romney spokesman at the time.

Trump's Des Moines-area events come on the heels of a new poll released Monday shows him and Democratic rival former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton locked in a close contest.

The survey by Simpson College and RABA Research, a bipartisan polling firm, showed Trump with 40 percent and Clinton with 39 percent — a difference that falls within the margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent. Third party candidates attracted 13 percent of the vote and another 8 percent remain undecided.

The billionaire businessman was last in Iowa Aug. 27 attending U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst's Roast and Ride fundraiser at the Iowa State Fairground in Des Moines. Tuesday's trip will be his fourth Iowa trip since securing the Republican nomination in July.

Clinton campaigned on Labor Day on the Illinois side of the Quad Cities at an event attended by many Iowa Democrats and union activists from Davenport and Bettendorf.