Senator Marco Rubio’s campaign sent select Iowa voters a mailer designed to pressure them to attend Monday’s caucuses — a tactic employed controversially by the Ted Cruz campaign — but without sharing information on their neighbors or with official-sounding language.
The mailer, shared with TIME, is branded as an “Iowa Caucus Report Card” listing the name and address of the recipient, as well as their voting history in prior caucuses, adding, “Improve your score by caucusing on Monday, February 1st.”
The tactic is part of a political science-inspired effort to boost turnout that has gained prevalence in recent years.
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But the tone of the Rubio message is sharply different from that of the Cruz effort, which appeared designed to mimic a government mailer and accused voters of a “voting violation.” It also included information on voters’ neighbors, drawing privacy concerns. The Cruz message drew condemnation from Iowa’s secretary of state, but the candidate defended the tactic Saturday.
“I will apologize to nobody for using every tool we can to encourage Iowans to come out and vote,” Cruz told reporters.
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