Donald Trump surged to victory Monday in Iowa’s caucuses — the first vote in the US presidential race — consolidating his status as the presumptive Republican standard-bearer to fight President Joe Biden in November’s election.
Although the former president has been leading polls for over a year, the Iowa battle was thought to be the best indication yet as to whether he can transform his lead into an incredible comeback to the White House.
After polls opened, major US networks projected the winner in less than thirty minutes, with Trump taking about seventy-five percent of the early vote.
There had been speculation as to whether Trump’s legal issues—he is currently the subject of numerous criminal and civil trials in various jurisdictions—may have weakened his support.
However, the Iowa triumph would imply that the 77-year-old, who fled Washington under cloud when his supporters stormed the US Capitol in 2021, was successful in using those prosecutions as a rallying cry to energise his supporters.
Iowa, the first vote of the primary season, is seen as essential to narrowing the field and providing a platform for the remaining contenders to advance in the contest.
As he continues his momentum into New Hampshire in eight days, the former reality TV star has a commanding advantage that his rivals have been unable to curb.
bundled up In spite of below-freezing conditions and a winter storm that forced candidates to postpone events until the last minute and worried aides about voter participation, Iowans braved the cold to cast votes at more than 1,600 locations throughout the state.
It was unclear at first how Trump’s closest competitors, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, were doing with voting just under way done when she was proclaimed the winner.
The former president’s victory margin may be significantly more than the 12-point triumph that his advisors claimed would have made for a pleasant evening.
Iowa accounts for fewer than two percent of the delegates given nationwide in the process to pick a party’s candidates, so a good night by no means guarantees success in the remainder of the nomination season.
However, contenders looking for a lift ahead of New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina must put up a strong performance.
With more personnel spread out around the state, the Trump machine was more coordinated than it was when he lost Iowa in 2016.
But, the candidate himself was off the road throughout the last week, appearing voluntarily in a number of court battles that shaped an unprecedented campaign for the White House.
DeSantis, who moved substantial resources to Iowa and spent months courting voters in all 99 counties, needs to win in Iowa.
Analysts predict that the hard-line conservative would suffer greatly if she did not place second. During the first hour of the debate, Haley appeared to be in the lead.
In Iowa, Haley attempted to minimise her expectations, stating that all she is aiming for is a strong showing before Tuesday’s primary in her home state of New Hampshire.
Citing the “chaos” of Trump’s criminal proceedings and reminding Iowans that Republicans have lost the popular vote in seven of the previous eight presidential elections, she has often bragged about how electable she is over him.
“I think we’ve always had a target on our back because we’ve been the one moving up, everybody else is going down and that’s a great thing,” Haley told news agency.
Caucuses — a peculiarity of the US election schedule — are town hall-style events with speeches and debate that only a few of states stage.
In recent weeks, hordes of volunteers have spread out across Iowa, working phone banks and knocking on doors, all the while politicians dominated the airwaves with appearances on talk shows and an onslaught of campaign advertisements.
Some contenders with low polling numbers are also participating in the caucuses, such as former governor of Arkansas Asa Hutchinson and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
Iowa Democrats are holding caucuses as well as mail-in voting through March, and President Joe Biden has two opponents but no real danger.
