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It was over just as it was getting started … and at some Iowa caucus locations, it was over before it even got started.
Sub-zero temperatures made worse by brittle winds didn’t stop Republicans from turning out in droves across the Hawkeye State on Monday night. At last count, more than 110,000 GOP caucus-goers cast ballots – well shy of the 2016 record but an impressive showing considering the mercury peaked at minus-2 degrees on Monday and dozens of roads remained impassable following a weekend blizzard.
Of course, many caucus-goers had barely taken off their coats and gloves when major news outlets informed them the race had already been decided. Even before votes were cast in some caucus locations, Donald Trump was declared the winner of the 2024 Iowa Caucuses (based entirely on entrance polling) by the Associated Press at 8:30 p.m. EST.
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From then on, there were only two questions: Would Trump break 50 percent, and would it be Florida governor Ron DeSantis or former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley who came in second? The answers to those questions: “Yes,” Trump did win a majority of votes (51 percent, actually). And it was DeSantis who emerged victorious in the undercard battle – drawing 21.2 percent of the vote compared to Haley’s 19.1 percent.
That order of finish was a flip from the final polling in the race, which showed Haley surpassing DeSantis for second place – enjoying a three-percentage point lead in Iowa on the eve of the caucuses.
Less than two hours after being declared the victor, Trump took the stage in Des Moines and delivered perhaps the biggest shock of the night. He displayed something many Republicans complained had been missing in his third run for the White House: A softer side. Missing were the “De-Sanctimonious” and “Birdbrain” putdowns of his top two opponents. In their place, to a certain extent, was a kinder and gentler Donald Trump, a politician who tried to be more uniter than divider.
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Trump had barely finished speaking when the next big news of the night dropped: Ohio entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy – who finished with a better-than-expected 7.7 percent of the caucus vote – announced he was suspending his campaign and endorsing the former president.
Up next was DeSantis, who sounded a lot like Elton John’s old song, “I’m Still Standing.” Despite the backing of popular Iowa governor Kim Reynolds and a bevy of big-name evangelical leaders, second place was the best he could manage – and a 30-point distant second place at that.
Still, DeSantis lives to fight another day – which would have been highly unlikely had he finished in third place.
The biggest loser of the night? Haley. After weeks of shouting that her campaign was “surging,” it appears as though Trump’s former U.N. ambassador surged too soon. Also, after months of arguing she could appeal to independents and moderates to win next November, a distant third place feels like a participation trophy.
Haley’s showing was especially disappointing after Democrats attempted to organize a crossover campaign on her behalf … and after former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, a converted #NeverTrumper and the most liberal Republican running for president, dropped out of the race. While Christie did not endorse Haley, it was believed many of his supporters would gravitate to her candidacy.
They did not … at least not in Iowa.
(Click to View)
In remarks that were clearly aimed beyond the state that had just rejected her, Haley stuck to her guns and insisted that she — and she alone — could deliver America from the (in her eyes) twin evils of Trump and Biden.
“Now it’s on to New Hampshire, where this campaign is the last best hope of stopping the Trump-Biden rematch that no one wants,” Haley said. “We offer America a better choice.”
Where does the race go from here?
The snowy, cornstalk-stubbled fields of Iowa are half a continent away from South Carolina. But what happened there on Monday night will directly impact the Republican presidential primary here in five weeks. To see where the candidates are placing their political capital, just follow the contrails of the jets taking off from Iowa. Haley headed straight to New Hampshire. DeSantis made a quick foray to South Carolina, then likewise sped off to the Granite State.
New Hampshire holds its first-in-the-nation presidential primary next Tuesday. The Iowa playbook could be flipped there as liberal New England will be a much harder sell for the solidly conservative DeSantis and much friendlier territory for Haley, who has been firmly ensconced in second place in the Granite State for weeks.
As for Trump? He headed to a courtroom in Manhattan, where he was scheduled to appear Tuesday as a criminal defendant in one of the many cases that could still entangle his path to the presidency.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
J. Mark Powell is an award-winning former TV journalist, government communications veteran, and a political consultant. He is also an author and an avid Civil War enthusiast. Got a tip or a story idea for Mark? Email him at mark@fitsnews.com.
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7 comments
The party of “law and order” love them some criminals! Epstein’s pal Mr. Grab ‘Em himself.
It is the CIA/NWO eternal “choice”. In our voting system (at least for Prez, US House, and US Senate) you almost always get to “choose” between a turd and a piece of shit. ALWAYS!. Not one of the selections on either side will be worth a damn.
None of the so-called Republican choices will be worth my vote, therefore I will attempt to write-in “None Of The Above” in the Republicrat Primary for Prez.
Democrats will get an equally dismal choice between Senile Joe, Kamala, or maybe Michel….er, Big Mike.
Haley indeed seems to have perked the interest of Independents, and the 15 % +- of Republicans who will never vote for Trump. is that enough to win a general election? If she can capture the 15%+- of Democrats who are unhappy with Biden, yes. But she will never get that chance. Trump will be the Republican nominee. Our country is in for the fight of its life. We would not survive another Trump Presidency looking like any American over the past 50 years would recognize. We will have elected a man:
1. Who said he will be a dictator on day one.
2. Who said he will change the Constitution so that he does not have to leave office in 4 years.
3. Who said he will use the military to kill Americans who stand up to him.
4. Who said he will arrest and kill Generals who refuse to obey his orders to place boots on American Streets and kill protestors who opposed him.
5. Who called our war dead losers and suckers.
6. Who says he has the right to arrest and kill his political opponents.
7. Who says he will round up Hispanics and place them in concentration camps until he can ship them out of the country.
8. Who claims to be a Christian, but has run around on all 3 of his wives and has never regularly attended church and never asked for the forgiveness of sins, saying he has done nothing to be forgiven for.
9. Who has rolled back the rights of women to decide with their doctor, if an abortion is appropriate..
10. Who has embraced neo-nazi white nationalists and racists and invited them into his home.
11. Who has expressed admiration for Putin’s, Xi’s, and Kim Jong Un’s control over their country.
I could go on and on, but the truth is we are in grave danger of seeing everything we have spent almost 400 years building destroyed almost overnight; and we have one of our political parties complicit in that destruction. I used to say, I could not understand how decent Germans, allowed Hitler to take over in Germany in the 1930s, but now i understand. A lot of them were not decent people, a lot of them were dupes, and a lot of them did not care what happened to anyone not like them.
Well we’ve heard from the Haley campaign chairman, now how about we hear someone who owns a set of testicles… Maybe Will can repost those articles of him finger banging Nikki in the back seat of her car.
So, with record low turn out, nearly 50% of Republican voters in Iowa did not want Trump?
Oops.
That’s called victory in Trumptard Town.
In Clemson there’s this awful smell…way past time to have fired Brownell !!!