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Donald Trump won the Iowa caucuses resoundingly on Monday, giving him his first victory in the contest for the 2024 Republican nomination and solidifying his status as the race’s clear frontrunner.
With most of the votes counted from precincts across the Midwestern state, Trump was on course to win more than 50 per cent, with Ron DeSantis narrowly beating Nikki Haley to a distant second place with just over 20 per cent.
“I really think this is time now for everybody, our country, to come together,” Trump said in front of his supporters at a post-caucus party in downtown Des Moines.
Instead of attacking Haley and DeSantis as he had repeatedly done throughout the campaign, Trump held out an olive branch, describing his Republican rivals as “very smart people, very capable people”.
Trump’s victory was the largest ever in a contested Iowa caucus, beating the 41 per cent won by George W Bush in 2000 — and showed his continued grip on the Republican party, with voters backing a man facing dozens of federal criminal charges.
The result is likely to disappoint DeSantis and Haley, who hoped to break free of the rest of the chasing group to emerge as the most plausible candidate to challenge Trump for the Republican nomination.
In his speech to supporters, DeSantis made clear he would continue to fight on despite the disappointing finish. “They threw everything but the kitchen sink at us,” he said. “Despite all of that they threw at us . . . we got our ticket punched out of Iowa.”
Despite finishing third, Haley gave a more upbeat assessment of her result, saying her lead over DeSantis in New Hampshire and South Carolina polls put her in a stronger position to topple Trump. “Tonight, Iowa did what Iowa always does so well,” she said. “I can safely say tonight Iowa made this Republican primary a two-person race.”
Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur, dropped his bid for the nomination after winning just under 8 per cent of the vote in the caucuses. He endorsed Trump in a speech in Iowa after announcing his exit.
Trump’s victory in Iowa was sufficiently clear early on Monday for the Associated Press to call the race barely 30 minutes after Iowans began debating in their caucuses — events at which voters discuss the candidates before holding votes.
Caucus-goers at an evangelical church in the Des Moines suburb of Clive were taken aback by the AP’s early call, with voters receiving news alerts on their phones even as they were still listening to speeches about the candidates.
Several at the caucus began showing each other their phones as one voter gave a speech in support of Haley, the former South Carolina governor.
The AP’s early declaration of Trump’s victory drew a rebuke from DeSantis, the governor of Florida, whose campaign said it was “outrageous” that media organisations would “participate in election interference by calling the race before tens of thousands of Iowans even had a chance to vote”.
By 10pm in Iowa, Trump held 51 per cent of the votes counted, with nearly 90 per cent of the precincts reporting their results. Trump was leading in each of Iowa’s 99 counties. DeSantis was in second, with 21 per cent statewide, just ahead of Haley in third on 19 per cent.
Monday’s caucuses also confirmed much of the polling ahead of the event, which showed Trump with a commanding lead in a shrinking field of Republicans vying for the party’s presidential nomination.
With Trump’s victory, the focus of the night shifted to the contest for second place — and whether Haley and DeSantis would fight on as the primary race heads to New Hampshire for the state’s primary.
The winner of the Republican primary race, which will unfold over the coming months and culminate at the party’s convention in July, will run against President Joe Biden in the general election in November.
Polling shows a much closer contest in New Hampshire, where Haley has gained support from moderate Republican voters and independents.
Trump’s victory in Iowa came despite a winter storm that brought brutal winter conditions to the state over the weekend and into Monday’s caucuses.
The former president had implored voters to turn up anyway — and tried to make light of the situation at a rally in Indianola, Iowa, on Sunday afternoon.
“You can’t sit home. If you’re sick as a dog, you say, ‘Darling, I gotta make it’ . . . Even if you vote and then pass away, it’s worth it, remember,” he said.
Additional reporting by Oliver Roeder in New York and Alex Rogers in Washington
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