An incredible map of Iowa's counties shows just how overwhelming Donald Trump's caucus victory was. His 30-point lead reaffirmed his grip on the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Trump won 98 of 99 precincts in a rout that leaves rivals Ron DeSantis, who came second with 23% of the vote, and Nikki Haley, third with 21% of the vote, behind.
But now Trump and his rivals will turn their attention to next week's New Hampshire primary on Jan. 23, where they will fight for more key votes with even more up for grabs after conservative businessman Vivek Ramaswamy dropped out of the race has been eliminated.
In previous presidential elections, Iowa's winners have won the presidency – as was the case with Jimmy Carter in 1976, Barack Obama in 2008 and George W. Bush in 2000.
DeSantis and Haley will now try to convert their defeat in Iowa into a victory in the upcoming primary, but conservative commentators like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich have already declared: “Trump is the candidate. 'Get over it.'
Trump won 98 of 99 precincts in a rout that leaves rivals Ron DeSantis, who came second with 23% of the vote, and Nikki Haley, third with 21% of the vote, behind. Haley did beat Trump in one district – Johnson – but only by one point.
Trump won 98 of 99 precincts in a rout that leaves rivals Ron DeSantis, who came second with 23% of the vote, and Nikki Haley, third with 21% of the vote, behind
For Haley, who came in third with 21 percent, she is hoping for a strong performance in New Hampshire, where she polled as high as 45 percent in recent weeks
And trailing Trump by more than 30 points in the Iowa caucus will be a blow to DeSantis — especially since previous Iowa delegates have supported conservative and religious candidates like him
As of 2 a.m., Trump had more than 56 percent of the vote, with Haley and DeSantis in second place
For Haley, who came in third with 21 percent, she is hoping for a strong performance in New Hampshire, where she polled as high as 45 percent in recent weeks.
“When you look at how well we're doing in New Hampshire, South Carolina and beyond, I can say with certainty that Iowa turned this Republican primary into a two-person race tonight,” she said.
But her supporters in Iowa have acknowledged that falling behind DeSantis last night could weaken their momentum in the key battlegrounds ahead. Haley did beat Trump in one district – Johnson – but only by one point.
However, DeSantis was largely absent from New Hampshire during his campaign.
He will first travel on Tuesday to South Carolina, a conservative stronghold, where the Feb. 24 contest could prove crucial. He will travel to New Hampshire later in the day.
And trailing Trump by more than 30 points in the Iowa caucus will be a blow to DeSantis — especially since previous Iowa delegates have supported conservative and religious candidates like him.
Some may now ask: If DeSantis can't beat Trump in conservative Iowa, where can he? But his spokesman had previously said his campaign would not fail if he lost to Trump in Iowa.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said the competition for the other candidates was all but over and declared that Trump would be the Republican presidential nominee, even though this was the first vote.
“Despite every lawsuit, despite every effort to destroy Trump, the people of Iowa stood up and said, 'No, he's our candidate.'
“He’s the candidate.” Get over it – he’s the candidate. He will win the nomination.'
Gingrich said the other candidates are now “irrelevant,” adding, “No one will be number two because Trump will completely dominate the entire country.”
Trump's landslide victory in Iowa now means that non-Trump voters remain divided, with no clear challenger emerging between DeSantis and Haley. The divided field could make his path to the nomination easier.
Iowa voters have been influential over the years, propelling candidates like Barack Obama to the presidential nomination.
But it hasn't always been the best prediction of who will win the presidency, as was the case in 2020 when Trump won all 99 counties in Iowa, only to lose the election to President Joe Biden.
In fact, Iowa Republicans elected Mike Huckabee in 2008 and Rick Santorium in 2012 – neither of whom won the presidential election.
And some candidates who were defeated in Iowa — like Ronald Reagan in 1980, George Bush in 1988 and Trump in 2016 — all won the election.
Former President Donald Trump raises his fist in the air after winning the Iowa caucus on January 15
Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Iowa Events Center after winning the first statewide Iowa caucus on Monday in Des Moines, Iowa
Former President Donald Trump raises his fist in the air after winning the Iowa caucus on January 15
In fact, Trump lost to Ted Cruz in Iowa in 2016, with only 37 counties voting for him, but he won the presidency.
But Trump's record victory last night gives him a firmer hold on the GOP nomination — although it could be several months before anyone officially becomes the party's standard-bearer.
But the extent of Trump's victory raised significant questions for both DeSantis and Haley. But neither candidate appeared ready to leave the race ahead of next week's New Hampshire primary.
In a foretaste of a remarkable balancing act Trump may have to manage in the coming months, he was expected to be in court in New York on Tuesday.
A jury is poised to consider whether to pay additional damages to a columnist who won a $5 million jury award against Trump last year for sexual abuse and defamation. It's just one of several legal challenges facing the former president.
After the court visit, Trump will fly to New Hampshire on Tuesday evening to hold a rally there.
Trump has made court visits part of his campaign — he went to court twice last week voluntarily while his opponents were campaigning in Iowa — in a strategy aimed at portraying him as a victim of a politicized legal system. At least with Republican voters, the approach works.
It took just half an hour for Trump's landslide victory to be announced, as thousands of his diehard supporters turned out to vote in subzero temperatures and wind chills as low as minus 30 degrees.
Trump quickly looked ahead, saying that “the big night will be in November when we take back our country in the general election.”
Instead of mocking the rest of the Republican camp, he applauded them for their campaign, calling them “very smart people, very capable people.”
“I want to congratulate Ron and Nikki on a great time together.” “I think they both did very well actually,” Trump told a crowd of a few hundred supporters, just hours after networks called the state for him.
It was a sudden turnaround for someone he regularly insulted as “Ron DeSantimonious” before the convention began and his victory was assured.
He also had kind words for Vivek Ramaswamy after blasting him in the final days before the election – just before Ramaswamy dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump.
“I also want to congratulate Vivek because he did a great job.” “He came from zero… that's a great job,” Trump said.
Trump, who has a lopsided lead in national polls, called for unity in his speech, even though Iowa represents only 1.6 percent of all delegates at stake in the fight for the nomination.
He called for people to “come together, put the world to rights and solve the problems.”
Trump sought to capitalize on the momentum of his convincing victory, even as the race for the GOP presidential nomination immediately shifted to New Hampshire, where Haley has risen in the polls. DeSantis plans to hold events Tuesday in South Carolina, where the Feb. 24 primary is set, and New Hampshire after failing to use his turnout organization to move closer to Trump.
“Thanks to your support, despite everything they threw at us,” DeSantis said at his own rally, “we were stripped of the Iowa ticket.” Haley said the results made it a “two-person race” between her and Trump.
Trump made the remarks in a victory speech in which he paid tribute to his late mother-in-law Amalija Knavs and thanked “my incredible wife,” former first lady Melania Trump.
He joked about his mother-in-law. “Boy, did she take care of Barron?” “That's how he got so big.”
Trump was accompanied on stage at his victory party by sons Eric and Don Jr., but daughter Ivanka was nowhere to be seen.
Ron DeSantis hugs his wife Casey DeSantis as he celebrates his projected second place finish
Nikki Haley speaks with her children at a caucus night party in West Des Moines, Iowa
Trump celebrated his storming victory in the primary in just 30 minutes by waiting on stage while Lee Greenwood's “God Bless the USA” played to the audience.
Iowa has been a mixed indicator of who will ultimately lead Republicans into the general election. George W. Bush's victory in 2000 was the last victory by a Republican candidate in Iowa and was later named the party's nominee.
But Trump's success tells the remarkable story of a Republican Party unwilling or unable to move on from a flawed front-runner. He lost to Biden in 2020 after fomenting near-constant chaos in the White House, culminating in a deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters. In total, he has been accused of 91 criminal offenses in four criminal proceedings.
The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing whether states have the option to bar Trump from voting for his role in inciting the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. And he faces criminal charges in Washington and Atlanta over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Trump has increasingly aligned himself with authoritarian leaders and portrayed his campaign as a retaliation campaign. He has spoken openly about using government power to persecute his political enemies.
He has repeatedly used the rhetoric of Adolf Hitler to argue that immigrants entering the U.S. illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country.” And last week, he shared a word cloud on his social media account highlighting “revenge,” “power” and “dictatorship.”
Trump's legal challenges appear to have done little damage to his reputation. Many of his supporters view the allegations from a political perspective.
About three-quarters of Iowans who responded to AP VoteCast said the allegations against Trump were political attempts to undermine him, rather than legitimate attempts to examine important issues.
“God called us to support Trump,” said 64-year-old David Lage, who donned a captain’s hat at Trump’s victory party.