DES MOINES, Iowa – The first competition was no competition at all.
Former President Donald Trump won the Iowa caucuses with a landslide victory Monday night, confirming his position as the clear favorite for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
With 97% of the expected votes, Trump obtained 51.1% support, followed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (21.2%), former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley (19.1%). and biotechnology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy (7.7%), who ended his campaign and gave Trump his support when the result became clear.
Trump, 77, recorded the largest margin of victory in the modern history of the Iowa Republican caucus, dating back to 1976, and became the first Republican candidate to win more than 50% support in a contested caucus.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump takes the stage at a caucus night party in Des Moines, Iowa, January 15, 2024. REUTERS
The former president won or led in 98 of the Hawkeye State’s 99 counties as of midnight Tuesday, with only Johnson County, home of the University of Iowa in Iowa City, narrowly denying him a clean sweep by barely going for Haley .
“I want to congratulate Ron and Nikki for having a great time together. We’re all having a good time together,” a remarkably low-key Trump said in his victory speech in Des Moines. “I think they both did very well. I really do. “I think they both did very well.”
The 45th president then paid tribute to his late mother-in-law, Amalija Knavs, who died on January 9, saying she was “up there, high up, looking down and she is very proud of us”, and made a call. for unity among Americans.
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks to supporters at his Iowa caucus night watch party after suspending his campaign and endorsing Trump in Des Moines, Iowa, January 15, 2024. REUTERS
“I truly believe that the time has come for everyone in our country to come together. We want to unite, whether you are Republicans, Democrats, liberals or conservatives,” said Trump, one of the most polarizing politicians in American history. “It would be really nice if we could come together and fix the world and fix the problems and fix all the death and destruction we’re seeing.”
With hundreds of caucus meetings still underway across the Hawkeye State, media outlets called Trump the winner at 8:30 p.m. ET, and fewer than 10 precincts had reported their vote counts to the Iowa Republican Party.
The initial projection of a Trump victory, which came after caucus meetings had begun but before many actual votes had been cast, infuriated the DeSantis camp, which accused the press of improperly influencing the outcome.
A sign announcing Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s Iowa victory is displayed at a viewing party during the 2024 Iowa Republican presidential caucuses. AFP via Getty Images
“I spoke before [approximately] 400 Iowans today at a caucus site and DeSantis won,” Florida Governor James Uthmeier’s campaign manager wrote in X. “Yet they were getting news alerts of a ‘Trump [sic] “victory” before the speeches concluded or voting began.
“The media wants to smear this process and it is sad for the United States. “Wake up everyone.”
DeSantis, who invested heavily in a running game in Iowa that failed to overcome the former president’s enormous popularity among voters, also referenced the initial projection in his comments to supporters in West Des Moines.
Trump was projected to easily win the Iowa caucuses. REUTERS
“They threw everything at us except the kitchen sink,” he said. “They spent almost $15 million attacking us… They even called elections before people had a chance to vote.”
“I’m not going to make any excuses,” DeSantis added, “and I guarantee you this: I will not let you down.”
Trump’s popularity was reflected in an AP-NORC pre-caucus poll of more than 1,500 Iowa Republicans, many of whom are in the mood to shake things up in Washington again: 88% said they wanted “substantial change” in the way the United States is governed or “total turmoil.”
Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis speaks to supporters during a caucus night party on Jan. 15, 2024, in West Des Moines, Iowa. AP
The poll also showed that immigration, not the economy, was the top issue on the minds of Iowa Republican voters.
With a migration surge threatening to overwhelm border authorities and big cities across the United States, 40% of Iowa Republicans said immigration was their top issue this cycle, compared to 33% who said it was their top issue. the state of the economy or employment was their main concern.
Republican Hawkeye Staters also made no bones about how they felt about the newcomers: Three-quarters of respondents said they felt immigrants were doing more harm than helping the United States, and only 22% said the opposite.
About 71% of Republican voters said they “strongly” supported building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, the signature promise of Trump’s three consecutive presidential campaigns.
Despite the efforts of DeSantis and other Trump rivals, about 7 in 10 Iowans who rallied for the former president Monday night said they had known all along they would do so.
Trump performed well in small towns and rural communities, where about 6 in 10 Republican caucusgoers said they live.
He won with white evangelical Christians, who make up nearly half of GOP attendees.
He also stood out among those who did not have a college degree.
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley speaks to the crowd at a caucus night party in West Des Moines, Iowa, on Jan. 15, 2024. Getty Images
While the former president performed less strongly in the Iowa suburbs, Trump still held off Haley and DeSantis to win plural support there.
The Florida governor, 45, was scheduled to fly to South Carolina for an event Tuesday morning before heading north to New Hampshire for an evening event.
Haley, 51, had tried to avoid naming specific expectations for her performance, hinting that she would be happy to finish in the top three before moving on to New Hampshire, where the primary electorate is more moderate and less dominated by social conservatives and evangelicals than Iowa. – and his home state of South Carolina.
“As we head to New Hampshire, I have one more thing to say,” Haley told her followers Monday night. “We will win”.
“Underestimate me,” he added, “because that’s always fun.”
Ramaswamy, who had promised a “stunning” result until the last possible moment, soon saw the writing on the wall on Monday night.
“We have analyzed it from all angles and I think it is true that we did not achieve the surprise that we wanted to give tonight, and I think that is a difficult fact that we will have to accept. “He told his followers.
Iowans count caucus votes in a location where former President Donald Trump won the vote. Ron Haviv/VII/Redux
“As of this moment we are going to suspend this presidential campaign,” Ramaswamy added before announcing that Trump had “my full support for the presidency.”
Trump’s campaign had been planning a landslide victory in the nation’s first caucus, and his team implemented a “10 for Trump” strategy, relying on caucus captains to recruit new or irregular participants to support the former president. .
That strategy paid off, as hats and stickers promoting Trump were all the paraphernalia that could be seen at a caucus attended by a Post reporter in West Des Moines.
Ramaswamy spoke to supporters while with his wife, Apoorva Tewari, and son, Karthik, at his Iowa caucus night watch party in Des Moines, Iowa, January 15, 2024. REUTERS
On the coldest caucus night on record, Iowa Republicans braved snow, icy roads and a wind chill that made the temperature feel like -30 degrees Fahrenheit.
Turnout was well below the record 186,932 who showed up for the Republican caucus in 2016, when Trump was defeated by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and is projected to be more in line with the 121,501 Republicans who turned out in 2012. to give former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) scored a narrow victory over eventual nominee Mitt Romney.
Trump and his rivals don’t have much time to digest Monday’s results as the Republican primary calendar shifts to New Hampshire and the nation’s first primary on Jan. 23, where polls have shown Haley closing a gap of double digits in the vote. support against the 45th president.
With post cables
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Source: vtt.edu.vn