Former President Donald Trump on Monday night easily won the caucuses in Iowa, the first state to vote in a months-long primary process where Republican voters will decide who they want to face the likely Democratic nominee, President Joe Biden, in November.
Based on
national polling and Trump's decisive win Monday, it might not take months to decide the GOP nominee.
Iowa has 40 delegates up for grabs, and 1,215 are needed to win the Republican nomination.
Initial results showed Trump winning more votes than all of his opponents combined, though he dropped to about 50% of the total as more votes were counted. The outcome seemed so lopsided early, most major news outlets – including Fox News, CNN, CBS News and ABC News – called the race less than 30 minutes into the caucuses.
Trump's top challengers, former South Carolina Gov. and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, were in a tight battle for second place with thousands of votes still to be counted. Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy was a distant fourth.
"Well, that was fast," the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., wrote Monday night on X, formerly known as Twitter. "Thank you Iowa. Now let’s end this nonsense and go after the insanity that is today’s Democrat party. Enough is enough! It’s time to put America first for a change."
The DeSantis campaign lamented the media calling the race so early in the evening.
"It is absolutely outrageous that the media would participate in election interference by calling the race before tens of thousands of Iowans even had a chance to vote," Communications Director Andrew Romeo said in a statement. "The media is in the tank for Trump and this is the most egregious example yet."
U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who chairs the House Republican Conference, celebrated the "massive Trump victory" on X Monday evening.
"I have said it before, I will say it again – President Trump is our Republican Nominee for 2024 & he will defeat Joe Biden this November to #SaveAmerica!" she wrote. "Congratulations [Trump] on your huge #TrumpTrain Iowa Caucus win! Choo-choo!!"
Trump leads Biden by four percentage points in the hypothetical general election race, according to the latest
The Center Square Voters' Voice Poll.
Iowa Republicans faced snow and below-zero temperatures Monday to cast their vote in the state's caucuses, the first to vote and set the tone for the Republican 2024 presidential primary. Trump’s victory comes as no surprise, but the remaining votes will show how his competitors fared and if one of Trump’s challengers can muscle the others out of the race.
Unlike other states, Iowa caucus-goers attended party meetings at local schools, churches and more later in the evening to choose their candidates.
"I’m asking you to go out, brave the cold and support me in the Iowa Caucus," DeSantis said in a video on X ahead of the vote.
His opponents did the same.
"Bundle up and buckle up!" Haley said on X earlier Monday.
Supporters traveled to Iowa for the big day or took to social media to show their support.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie withdrew from the race last week after lagging in the low single digits in polling. DeSantis and Haley also faced off in a CNN debate last week, one that Trump skipped and for which businessman Ramaswamy did not qualify.
Heading into the Iowa Caucuses, Trump held a
hefty lead in the polls, outdistancing his challengers by about 30 points. Nationally, Trump holds an even bigger lead over his GOP rivals.
The Center Square’s Voter Voices poll released last week asked Republican voters, “Which of the following candidates are you most likely to vote for in the 2024 Republican primary?”
Of those surveyed, 61% of Republicans picked Trump.
In the poll, 13% of those surveyed chose Haley while 12% picked DeSantis.
The
poll was conducted in conjunction with Noble Predictive Insights and surveyed 2,573 Americans. The poll has a margin of error of about 2%.
Casey Harper
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Reposted with permission
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