Image from: Reuters
Despite temperatures being the coldest on record on the night of the caucuses, more than 100,000 Iowans showed up to cast a vote for their preferred candidate.
Former president Donald Trump had a dominant performance, winning the night with over 50% of the vote. Ron DeSantis finished a distant second with only 21% of the vote, while Nikki Haley came in just behind him at 19% support.
Trump’s performance was so strong that the major news networks called the race just 30 minutes after the first votes had been cast. The evening was over as quickly as it had begun.
Finishing in fourth place with a mere 8% of the vote was Vivek Ramaswamy, prompting him to drop out of the race and endorse Trump. With the former president presumably gaining the support of Ramaswamy voters, Trump is looking at a complete sweep of the primaries, setting him up to take on President Biden in the general election in November.
“I really think this is time now for everybody – our country – to come together,” said Trump in his victory speech. “Whether it’s Republican or Democrat, or liberal or conservative, it would be so nice if we could come together and straighten out the world.”
In a surprising shoutout to his two rivals, Trump said, “I want to congratulate Ron and Nikki. I think they did very well.” One could assume from these comments that the former president does not feel particularly threatened by either of his remaining opponents.
Governor DeSantis delivered remarks to an enthusiastic crowd of his supporters, saying, “They threw everything but the kitchen sink at us. But I can tell you, because of your support…we’ve got our ticket punched out of Iowa.” In his brief speech, the Florida governor did not throw any jabs at Donald Trump, opting instead to give his positive vision for the nation.
In a close third-place finish, Nikki Haley showcased her optimism for the upcoming primary contests. “The pundits will analyze the results from every angle; we get that,” said Haley from West Des Moines. “But when you look at how we’re doing in New Hampshire, in South Carolina, and beyond, I can safely say that tonight, Iowa made this Republican primary a two-person race.”
The former South Carolina governor was the only candidate other than Trump to win an entire county in Iowa, with the former president sweeping the rest of the Hawkeye state. Haley won Johnson County, home of the University of Iowa, by one vote against the former president.
Demographically, Ron DeSantis carried the highest support among younger voters aged 17-to-29, while Donald Trump carried the older voters, 65+, with a massive 58% support. Contrary to conventional wisdom, President Trump actually had more support from women than men. Ramaswamy, on the other hand, had twice as much support from men as from women.
Two-thirds of non-college-educated Iowa voters backed Trump, while college-educated voters split the rest of their support relatively evenly between the top three candidates.
A result that bodes well for Nikki Haley, especially in a state like New Hampshire, is that she won over more than twice as many Independent voters as registered Republicans. Heading into the rest of the primary and especially the general election, Independent support must be gained to snag the presidential victory in November. However, Trump also performed very well with Independents, with 42% backing him.
Ultimately, Donald Trump still holds a lead of 14 points over Haley in New Hampshire with just one week until that primary. Although the former president’s support has been slowly declining for the past month, while Haley has been on an upward trajectory, it is still going to be an uphill battle for anybody to pose a real threat to Trump in securing the Republican nomination.
Brandon Goldman is the Chief Development Officer for American Daily Press and is based outside of Boston, MA