WASHINGTON: Donald Trump stamped his authority on the Republican Party nomination process for the 2024 presidential election with a crushing win in Iowa caucuses on Monday. The former US President’s annihilation of party rivals by more than 30 points included a rout of Indian-American opponents Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy, the latter immediately dropping out of the race to endorse Trump.
Trump supporters braved sub-zero temperatures and icy winds to turn up in strength and give him 51% votes. Although Iowa accounts for just 1.6% of the total delegates at stake, as the first state to kick off the nomination race, it provides the momentum in a long process that now moves to New Hampshire next week.
Eye on rematch with Biden, Trump urges Republican opponents to drop out of race
Instead of his trademark gloating and smackdown of opponents following his big win in the first Republican contest in Iowa for 2024 presidential race, Donald Trump congratulated them for doing “very well” and said the “big night is going to be in November when we take back our country”. Vivek Ramaswamy, he said, “did one hell of a job”, coming from zero.
Trump seized on the win to urge the remaining aspirants to drop out to allow him to focus on defeating Joe Biden, who is expected to be the Democratic nominee in the November face-off for the White House. Trump’s nearest rival, Florida governor Ron DeSantis polled 21% of the votes, while former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley was on 19%. Ramaswamy finished fourth on 8%.
Ramaswamy phoned Trump following the results to congratulate him and offer his endorsement, after saying, “As of this moment we are going to suspend this presidential campaign…there is no path for me to be the next president absent things we don’t want to see in this country.” While he brawled with other rivals, notably Haley, Ramaswamy was more deferential towards Trump, leaving the door open for being drafted as his running mate. He told reporters after his speech that he had expected to draw more first-time caucusgoers, “and that proved too difficult to actually translate into meaningful results”. He said he had not been anticipating earlier today that he would be dropping out, and said he was “a little surprised by what happened tonight”.
The Iowa turnout of 115,000 voters is only about a sixth of the state’s 700,000 registered Republican voters (of the state’s 2 million registered voters of both parties plus independents). But it indicated a vehement surge of support for Trump in the face of the many legal cases against him. Early analysis of the voting showed Trump more than doubled his share of votes from 2016, when he finished second to Ted Cruz with 24% of votes. Trump’s victory was the largest margin in the history of Iowa’s Republican presidential caucuses, easily surpassing the previous winning margin of 12.8% set in 1988 by the late senator Bob Dole.
With about 94% of the results that have been recorded, CNN reported that Trump will receive 20 of Iowa’s 40 delegates. There are a total of 2,429 delegates up for grabs in the Republican primary season. A candidate needs at least 1,215 delegates to win the nomination.
(With agency inputs)
Trump supporters braved sub-zero temperatures and icy winds to turn up in strength and give him 51% votes. Although Iowa accounts for just 1.6% of the total delegates at stake, as the first state to kick off the nomination race, it provides the momentum in a long process that now moves to New Hampshire next week.
Eye on rematch with Biden, Trump urges Republican opponents to drop out of race
Instead of his trademark gloating and smackdown of opponents following his big win in the first Republican contest in Iowa for 2024 presidential race, Donald Trump congratulated them for doing “very well” and said the “big night is going to be in November when we take back our country”. Vivek Ramaswamy, he said, “did one hell of a job”, coming from zero.
Trump seized on the win to urge the remaining aspirants to drop out to allow him to focus on defeating Joe Biden, who is expected to be the Democratic nominee in the November face-off for the White House. Trump’s nearest rival, Florida governor Ron DeSantis polled 21% of the votes, while former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley was on 19%. Ramaswamy finished fourth on 8%.
Ramaswamy phoned Trump following the results to congratulate him and offer his endorsement, after saying, “As of this moment we are going to suspend this presidential campaign…there is no path for me to be the next president absent things we don’t want to see in this country.” While he brawled with other rivals, notably Haley, Ramaswamy was more deferential towards Trump, leaving the door open for being drafted as his running mate. He told reporters after his speech that he had expected to draw more first-time caucusgoers, “and that proved too difficult to actually translate into meaningful results”. He said he had not been anticipating earlier today that he would be dropping out, and said he was “a little surprised by what happened tonight”.
The Iowa turnout of 115,000 voters is only about a sixth of the state’s 700,000 registered Republican voters (of the state’s 2 million registered voters of both parties plus independents). But it indicated a vehement surge of support for Trump in the face of the many legal cases against him. Early analysis of the voting showed Trump more than doubled his share of votes from 2016, when he finished second to Ted Cruz with 24% of votes. Trump’s victory was the largest margin in the history of Iowa’s Republican presidential caucuses, easily surpassing the previous winning margin of 12.8% set in 1988 by the late senator Bob Dole.
With about 94% of the results that have been recorded, CNN reported that Trump will receive 20 of Iowa’s 40 delegates. There are a total of 2,429 delegates up for grabs in the Republican primary season. A candidate needs at least 1,215 delegates to win the nomination.
(With agency inputs)