Trump wins Iowa caucus, closes in on Biden rematch
DES MOINES, IOWA—Donald Trump secured a resounding win in the first 2024 Republican presidential contest in Iowa on Monday, asserting his command over the party despite facing scores of criminal charges as he seeks an election rematch with President Joe Biden.
Trump took over half the votes, propelling him towards what looks set to be a close and deeply acrimonious election campaign against Biden, a Democrat, in November.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, 45, finished well behind Trump in second place in Iowa, edging out former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, 51, as they both failed to emerge as the chief opponent.
Trump, 77, the only current or ex-US president to be charged with criminal activity, won 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.
Trump garnered 51 percent, DeSantis 21 percent and Haley 19 percent, with 99 percent of the expected vote tallied, according to Edison Research. That victory margin far surpassed the previous record of 12.8 percentage points for Bob Dole in 1988.
“THANK YOU IOWA, I LOVE YOU ALL!!!” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.
He is hoping to fast-track the normally months-long Republican selection process with a series of convincing early primary wins to force out his rivals.
Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy ended his long-shot presidential bid after winning just under 8 percent of the vote on Monday, and he endorsed Trump.
Moving onThe candidates immediately move on to New Hampshire on Tuesday. The state’s more moderate Republicans will choose their nominee next Tuesday and polls show Trump with a smaller lead over Haley there, and DeSantis far behind.
Trump’s performance in Iowa showed his enduring popularity among Republican voters even after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by a mob of his supporters and his 91 criminal charges for trying to overturn the 2020 election, retaining classified documents after leaving the White House and falsifying records over hush money payments to a porn star.
Trump has used his legal travails to fundraise and boost his support as he protests his innocence and says he is the victim of a “witch hunt.”
Nearly two-thirds of Iowa caucus-goers embraced his claims about voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, saying they did not think Biden legitimately beat Trump.
More than 60 percent said Trump would still be fit to serve as president even if convicted of a crime.
Trump dominated across the board, according to an Edison entrance poll: he won a majority among men and among women; among those who consider themselves very conservative, somewhat conservative and independent; among those who graduated college and those who did not.
Priority
He captured a majority of Republicans who put immigration as their top concern—and a majority of those who said the economy was their main worry.
“Absent a quick consolidation of the field, Trump appears to be on a fast track to the nomination,” said Jimmy Centers, an Iowa-based Republican strategist.
Still, both DeSantis and Haley vowed to press ahead, ensuring Trump’s opposition will remain fractured as the campaign moves on.
“We’ve got our ticket punched out of Iowa!” DeSantis, who had stake a lot on a strong performance in the state, told supporters in West Des Moines on Monday.
“When you look at how we’re doing, in New Hampshire, in South Carolina and beyond, I can safely say tonight Iowa made this Republican primary a two-person race,” Haley said on Monday night.
