Former President Donald Trump dominated the Iowa Republican presidential caucuses Monday, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis holding off former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for second place.
DeSantis bet heavily on Iowa as he tried to become the alternative candidate to Trump. But as of midnight Eastern time, Trump had won about 51 percent of the vote — with a chance to win all 99 Iowa counties — while DeSantis was at about 21 percent.
During a brief appearance after most of the results had come in, DeSantis said opponents “threw everything but the kitchen sink at us” and indicated he will stay in the race.
“You helped us get our ticket punched out of the Hawkeye state,” he told Iowa supporters.
Haley finished third with about 19 percent of the vote, according to the results posted on the Iowa Republican Party website. But she cited strength in the upcoming primary states of New Hampshire and South Carolina and tried to frame the race as between her and Trump.
“I can safely say tonight Iowa made this Republican primary a two-person race,” Haley told cheering supporters.
Haley said she was headed to New Hampshire, while DeSantis is scheduled to campaign Tuesday in South Carolina and New Hampshire. The next contest will be the New Hampshire primary on Jan. 23.
Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy won nearly 8 percent of the Iowa vote and quickly announced he was halting his campaign and endorsing Trump.
In a speech to supporters, Trump said little about his opponents, describing DeSantis, Haley and Ramaswamy as “very smart people, very capable people.” Trump focused on broader issues such as illegal immigration, inflation and the war in Ukraine — while criticizing President Joe Biden.
“He is the worst president that we have had in the history of our country,” Trump said. “He’s destroying our country.”
Trump’s victory was apparent early. For example, the Associated Press and CNN declared him the victor about 8:30 p.m. Eastern time, 30 minutes after the caucuses started, based on entrance polls and early results.
Earlier Tuesday, backers of DeSantis and Haley sniped at each other. Never Back Down, a super PAC backing DeSantis, sent out a news release that said anything “less than a ‘strong second’ for Haley in Iowa will be an embarrassing loss.”
Meanwhile, SFA, Inc., a super PAC supporting Haley, sent out a news release titled, “DeSantis Promised To Win Iowa; Likely Finish Distant 2nd or 3rd Place.”
The anti-DeSantis Florida group DeSantis Watch sent a statement as caucus results came in that said DeSantis’ “national political ambitions were pronounced dead tonight in Iowa.”
“Over the last seven months, Ron DeSantis set out to prove that the more you got to know Florida’s governor, the less you would like him,” Anders Croy, communications director for DeSantis Watch, said in the statement.
–Jim Saunders, News Service of Florida
marlee says
per ABC:
Iowa’s Republican caucusgoers don’t reflect the American electorate.
Per ABC News,
White voters account for 97% of Iowa caucusgoers.
Evangelical white Christians account for 51% of caucusgoers.
66% said they don’t think President Joe Biden legitimately won in 2020.
58% of GOP caucusgoers say they’d favor a federal law banning all or most abortion.
63% of caucusgoers say they consider Trump fit for office even if he is convicted.
DaleL says
The Iowa caucus is not the same as a primary election. The caucuses began at 7 pm CST. Participants had to be there in person and had to stay through the caucus. As I write this, the temperature in my hometown in Iowa is 7 degrees BELOW zero actual temperature. The turnout for this year’s caucus is the lowest on record. My relatives, on FaceBook and by text, are reporting how bad the conditions are.
The results in Iowa are more indicative of the fanaticism of Trump supporters than his actual popularity. Trump is reported as: “Trump tells Iowans to caucus even if they are sick and DIE: Ex-president says ‘if you vote and then pass away, it’s worth it'”
Over 1,200 fanatical Trump supporters, who took part in the January 6th Capitol insurrection, have been charged and over 460 have been convicted and imprisoned.
The dude says
Welp… the evanjellykills have proven yet again they are not with god.
Pogo says
@Stop and think
1. 49% of Iowa primary voters rejected Trump.
2. Nothing is over — until it’s actually too late.
Jackson says
Socioeconomic study finds the result in Iowa predictive. Largely rural, agricultural dominant society, if they take care of pigs at home, might as well sponsor one in Wash DC.
Wallingford says
If you want to see one of the most beautiful State Parks in existence and you can understand why based upon who it is named after. Google Donald J Trump State Park and you will see a Park that is truly worthy of His Name. It is believed that President Trump valued the Property at $100 Million when he so graciously donated it to the State of New York. If you get the opportunity, you should schedule a visit there. Maybe he can schedule a Rally there.
tulip says
At the Iowa Caucus they called the race when only 3 percent of the vote was in and said trump was the winner. That was way to early to call a vote and some of the caucuses hadn’t even finished voting yet. Any one that wanted to vote for someone other than trump probably lost a lot of votes because, if the winner has been declared, those who hadn’t voted yet would just switch over to trump in order to be on the “winning team”
It makes me wonder very seriously if trump saw to it to have them call it early cause he was nervousa about not getting enough votes? Sounds like something he would do.. In fact, if they had called it early for one of the other candidates, trump would be yelling all over the place that it was rigged. The mere thought of having criminal trump back in office with all his pardoned criminal felons running the The Whitehouse is absolutely frightening.
TR says
I believe the reason the caucus was called was based on that particular time of the votes. The amount of remaining votes still wouldn’t change the outcome. But a lot of people give trump to much credit as to him controlling the outcome. If that was the case puppet Joe wouldn’t have won the presidency. Just saying.
Ray W. says
Actually, TR, there is every reason to believe that Republicans miscalculated when they attempted to steal the 2020 election. They didn’t want to change so many votes that it would be obvious to all that they were stealing the election. They did manipulate many of the voting machines using both Russian space lasers and Chinese software developed by Xi after China gave copyright status to products sold by the Trump children. But the Republicans behind the steal effort did not anticipate that our current president would garner so many valid votes. And the hand recounts showed that Biden actually gained votes.
Why is your fantastical version more accurate than mine?
In the end, no one stole any election. Wherever the votes were subjected to hand recounts, the numbers showed that the original counts were remarkably accurate.
DaleL says
I did. :-) It was worth the read.
I’m still hopeful that SCOTUS will end this travesty. The oral arguments will be held on February 8th in Mr. Trump’s appeal to remain on the Colorado primary ballot.
In 2022 in New Mexico, Couy Griffin, an Otero County commissioner, was ruled by a state district court to be disqualified from holding public office because he violated Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment by participating in the Jan. 6 siege. He was removed from office. He appealed and lost.
Ray W. says
News reports confirm that the last criminal charges against a former elections supervisor for Virginia’s Prince William County were recently dropped. While multiple 2020 races in that county, for candidates of either party, were affected by “human error”, a “lack of planning”, and a “difficult election environment”, it was reported that the Trump vote was overreported by 2,327 votes and the Biden vote was underreported by 1,648 votes, for a total countywide error in favor of Trump of 3,975 votes.
How many times, TR, will it take for report after report of recounts that show that initial vote counts underreported Biden’s actual vote count in 2020 for you to acknowledge that almost every recount has increased Biden’s true vote count? More than three years have passed, and no court has found the existence of any statistically significant vote error in favor of President Biden. Biden won the 2020 election, fair and square. No one stole the 2020 election. Just say it out loud 21 times: “Joe Biden is MY president.”
Does every FlaglerLive reader more fully understand now that TR exemplifies what James Madison feared, e.g., the presence of the “pestilential” partisan member of faction among us all. If people like TR were capable of following reason to whatever end it took them, we would not need checks and balances. But TR can’t follow reason to any end, and we do need checks and balances.
dave says
It’s a darn caucus, nothing more. Nov 5, 2024 will tell the real story.
troy says
“What a fool believes, the wise man has the power to reason away.”
-Doobie Brothers
tulip says
I’ve never seen a primary or election called when only 3% of the vote was in. candidates get different amounts of votes county county. Therefore one could have a lead over the others and then more votes come in and they may no longer have that lead, etc.
Nancy N. says
Tulip and TR obviously have NO idea how a caucus works. But knowledge might interfere with their conspiracy theories, so….