(CNN) – In the scramble for Herman Cain supporters after his exit from the 2012 Republican presidential campaign, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann said Sunday that she has already gotten a boost.
“One thing we’ve seen a lot of is Herman Cain supporters have been calling our office and they’ve been coming over to our side,” Bachmann told CNN’s “State of the Union with Candy Crowley” program, adding “part of that is because people see that I’m the tea party candidate in the race and they saw Herman Cain as an outsider and I think they see that my voice would be the one that would be most reflective of his.”
Fellow Congress member and presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul of Texas also says his candidacy will benefit from Cain’s withdrawal from the race Saturday, but Bachmann said she is more ideologically linked to the tea party movement that liked Cain.
“As tea partiers see where the candidates stand on the issues, they’re going to come home and I think on January 3, a lot will come home,” Bachmann said of the date of the Iowa caucuses, the first formal test of the primary season.
Bachmann won the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa last August, giving her candidacy a boost, but support for her campaign has since fallen, according to national polls.
To Bachmann, the Ames Straw Poll was “the best poll that you had” so far and showed she was the “most electable” in the GOP field.
Iowa caucus-goers “take this process very seriously and they’re vetting all of the candidates” Bachmann said, adding that “there’s a lot of surprises that they’re finding in this race.”
“They’re going to see of all of the candidates, I’m the one that doesn’t have the political surprises,” she said.
Also see:
Cain suspends presidential campaign
Reporter's Notebook: The Rise and Fall of the real Herman Cain
Cain Iowa supporters: Media 'took a good man down'
Watch State of the Union with Candy Crowley Sundays at 9am ET. For the latest from State of the Union click here.
From CNN Politics
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That they will, Michelle, that they will...that's why your campaign will go nowhere...
Didn't you get the memo? Most of Americas do not support the Tea Party... America is beginning to see the results of Tea Party extremism – and we don't like it...
Say Ollie, what's the difference between MR. CAIN and MICHELE DARLIN'?
..
Simple question, Stanley, so I will give you a simple answer: 2" OF MAKE-UP.
The only way Bachmann will ever see the whitehouse, is if she works for the Greenbay Packers
Why is it that every photo of her looks like a deer in headlights? She has said so many outlandish things in the past, how does she think she will shake her comments and come out on top. I think all the candidates are flavors of the month and Romney will come out on top. Let's all hope for an independent to run to be able to let Obama debate with someone more intelligent than a rock.
Why don't you just 'go home', Michelle?
Did tea baggers asked her to quit the race last month? Yes
They will all go home to Minnesota and never be heard from again.
Looks as though manic Michele has wondered into that parallel universe again.
You, know, the one where her husband Marcus, is "butch" and not a flaming, nelly queen.
Why wouldn't they? Teabaggers have latched on to every loony idiot in sight. The crazier the better apparently.
Teabaggers.. pffft... so lame.
Michele Bachmann Is to dumb to know when she done. Even If the Tea Party come back to you It wouldn't help , because most American People don't like the Tea Party to begin with.
You bought your way into the Ames poll, you bused them in, paid their admission fee and fed them free BBQ.
While it was a "win", it only shows most Iowans prefer BBQ!
Let's face it. This election cycle isn't going to go well for conservatives. And it's our fault for letting kooks like Bachmann and her Tea Party to take over our party. I'm now an independent and will stay that way until the GOP gets its act together by turning their backs on the crazies. I'm so disgusted, and I'm not the only one.
I actually feel sorry for this pitiful person. Please go away, Bachmann.
One can only hope that the entire Tea Party ends up in Bachmann's court and we can get rid of all of them with one flush in 2012..
If you love something, set it free, Michele.
Oh well, you know the recipe : to make tea you gotta put an old bag or a lot of flakes in hot water...
That's optimism. The reality may be disappointing, though.
Just one insane comment from Bachmann. I hope she stays in the race right up to the end, no other candidate provides as much laughter to America as Bachmann. One of the best things about her is that she doesn't even know that she's the laughing stock of America.
Bachmann is delusional and thinks her little government funded clinic makes her an expert on the economy, this coming from the one that promises $2.00 a gallon gas. There has to be 299 milion more qualified candidates available.
Where is her asylum buddy Palin on this? Haven't heard her supporting her tea party pin-up partner in her corner.
if I recall correctly it was Tea Party groups the first to ask her to step down. But I actually hope she stays around and wins the nomination. It would show how dumb the Republican Party has become and make it an easier path for Obama to get to finish what he's started. The first Bachmann/Obama debate would be a classic....let her meet him face to face and try to lie on him then.
I will NEVER support Bachmann, she is NOT my idea of a Tea Party movement candidate. Bachmann needs a grip on some reality. She can start with she needs to admit that she lied about the made up woman she talked to after the debate that time. When Bachmann told Gerta about the woman’s statement to her about Gardisil causing retardation, she should have qualified it and said she would research it further. Bachmann did not and she has NOT because it is a LIE. As a lawyer, she should have known better than to repeat such an allegation without taking time to verify it.
NO Way would I vote for Bachmann.
Her comment would be funny if it weren't so sad what a mockery the Republican field of candidates have made of our electoral process. Dream on Bachmann. Hopefully after 2012 she will be gone from Congress and from the headlines. She is an embarrassment to America.
Good for you Michelle- you're going to get those clueless people back that think you're against big government (your entire existence is a government subsidy) and that Herman Cain was not for big business ( All his experience is corporate). They are the same people that wanted Palin last year.
Ignorance is bliss. And those people are euphoric in their lack of knowledge.
As an Independent I must say, Bachmann should just drop out because it seems she is trying to say Iowa will thrust her into the nomination. In fact I agree with a number a post on here, most Americans are tired of the Tea Party. I'm not going to start calling them names and what not but seriously what has the tea party brought besides its cut everything and down with Obama ideology? I'm sure the Tea Party at its grass root level meant well when they emerge but let's be honest, the mainstream Tea Party has been hijacked by the likes of the Koch brothers and Fox News! On another note why hasn't any conservatives looked into Jon Huntsman? If you want to beat Obama then get behind a candidate already, a TRUE candidate.