Donald Trump has secured a resounding victory in the first 2024 Republican presidential contest in Iowa on Monday. With this win, he asserts his dominance over the party as he seeks a third consecutive nomination and a rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden.
Notably, Edison Research projected the win and said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley were in a battle for second place as they sought to emerge as the chief alternative to Trump, who served as president from 2017-2021.
Trump was poised to win by an unprecedented margin for an Iowa Republican contest, strengthening his case that his nomination is a foregone conclusion, given his massive lead in national polls despite facing four criminal indictments.
With 40% of the expected vote tallied, Trump had 52.6%, while DeSantis was at 20% and Haley 18.7%, according to Edison. The largest margin of victory for an Iowa Republican caucus was 12.8 percentage points for Bob Dole in 1988.
It was too early to say whether Trump would exceed 50%, a psychological figure that would further weaken his rivals’ argument that his march to the nomination could be derailed.
In a statement, Alex Pfeiffer, a spokesperson for the main super political action committee supporting Trump, said, “The people of Iowa sent a clear message tonight: Donald Trump will be the next Republican nominee for President. It’s now time to make him the next President of the United States.”
Both DeSantis and Haley were aiming for a strong second-place finish to convince donors and supporters that their challenges to Trump remain viable.
DeSantis in particular had wagered his campaign on Iowa, barnstorming all of its 99 counties, and a third-place finish could increase pressure for him to end his bid.
Trump’s road to victory
Polls show him far behind Trump and Haley in the more moderate Northeastern state of New Hampshire, where Republicans will choose their nominee eight days from now.
Iowans braved life-threatening temperatures to gather at more than 1,600 schools, community centers, and other sites for the state’s first-in-the-nation caucus, as the 2024 presidential campaign officially got underway after months of debates, rallies, and advertisements.
Caucus-goers appeared broadly supportive of Trump, according to an Edison Research entrance poll.
Only one-third of caucus-goers said Trump would be unfit for president if convicted of a crime. Nearly two-thirds said they did not believe Biden legitimately won the 2020 election, embracing Trump’s falsehoods about voter fraud.
“Trump is very narcissistic, he’s very cocky, but he’s going to get stuff done,” said Rita Stone, 53, a Trump backer, who attended a caucus at a West Des Moines high school. Like many other voters, Stone said her leading concern was the U.S. southern border with Mexico, praising Trump’s effort to build a wall when he was president.
Trump has aimed to create an air of inevitability around his campaign, skipping all five of the Republican debates thus far and largely eschewing the county-by-county politicking that most candidates do ahead of the Iowa vote.”I feel really invigorated and strong for our country,” Trump told Fox News Digital after the network projected that he had won.
(With inputs from Reuters)
