DES MOINES, Iowa — Former President Donald Trump easily trounced his Republican competitors in the Iowa caucuses after dominating the polls in the Hawkeye State for months.
Mr. Trump’s resounding win, on one of the coldest caucus nights in Iowa history, was projected just a half-hour after the caucus began and before all the votes had even been cast statewide.
“They said you’ll never get over 50,” Mr. Trump told the crowd as his support grew to a majority and was at 51% early Tuesday morning and had apparently won every county in the state — both unprecedented in contested Iowa caucuses.
He called it his first win “because the big night is going to be in November when we take back our country, and we truly make America great again.”
In his victory speech, Mr. Trump put aside his criticisms of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, on whom he heaped praise as “very smart people, very capable people.”
The commanding win solidified Mr. Trump’s standing as the prohibitive favorite, and he appeared poised to sweep the Republican primary contests.
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“It is over,” former Speaker Newt Gingrich said on Fox News of the GOP nomination race. “If you have any doubt about this, watch the returns come in tonight.”
Heavy turnout was reported across Iowa despite the bitter cold — temperatures were well below zero — that some feared would keep voters at home.
Mr. Trump’s deep popularity in Iowa proved impossible for other candidates to overtake. Mr. DeSantis, who poured much of his energy and funding into the state and traveled to all 99 of Iowa’s counties, finished a distant second place, 30 percentage points behind Mr. Trump with about 21% of the vote.
He managed to edge out Ms. Haley, who surged in Iowa polls to become a rival to Mr. DeSantis as the chief alternative to Mr. Trump. Ms. Haley garnered about 19% support in the Iowa caucuses.
Mr. DeSantis and Ms. Haley vowed to keep battling in the nomination race.
The caucuses, however, claimed a casualty with biotech tycoon Vivek Ramaswamy ending his campaign after finishing in fourth place with just under 8% support.
SEE ALSO: DeSantis ekes out narrow second-place win over Haley in Iowa
“This is hard for me,” Mr. Ramaswamy told supporters at a caucus night party. “We’ve looked at it every which way, and I think it is true that we did not deliver the surprise we wanted tonight.”
Mr. Ramaswamy, who ran as a next-generation version of Mr. Trump, said he gave Mr. Trump his “full endorsement” going forward.
Mr. Trump’s historic margin of victory in Iowa showed the durability of his popularity, as the majority of Iowa caucus voters rejected putting a new Republican on the 2024 ballot to replace him.
They said Mr. Trump brought economic prosperity, a more secure border and a strong national security and foreign policy stance that vanished under President Biden.
“I think he exposed the Washington underworld, and I am hoping when he gets back in there he can straighten it out,” said Richard Quaid, 85, who caucused for Mr. Trump in West Des Moines. “The corruption in Washington, D.C., and the spending of money they don’t have — it is ridiculous.”
Mr. DeSantis even ran to the right of Mr. Trump on abortion restrictions in a bid to win over the state’s heavily evangelical Republican electorate, but did not succeed.
A DeSantis spokesman lashed out at the media Monday after networks declared Mr. Trump the winner before some caucus sites had started voting.
“It is absolutely outrageous that the media would participate in election interference by calling the race before tens of thousands of Iowans even had a chance to vote,” said DeSantis spokesman Andrew Romeo. “The media is in the tank for Trump and this is the most egregious example yet.”
Mr. DeSantis planned to depart Iowa for South Carolina, which holds a GOP primary on Feb. 24.
Ms. Haley, who hoped to defeat Mr. DeSantis in Iowa and turn the primary into a two-person race with the former president, plans to run hard against Mr. Trump in the Jan. 23 primary in New Hampshire.
At her caucus night party, Ms. Haley still described the contest as a “two-person race.”
“Underestimate me, because that’s always fun,” Ms. Haley said. “I love you Iowa, but we’re on to New Hampshire.”
One recent poll showed Ms. Haley behind the former president by single digits, and Mr. Trump has begun treating her as his top primary threat.
Ms. Haley and Mr. Trump are already battling hard in the state with dueling campaign ads attacking each other and a slate of competing rallies and town-hall events scheduled for nearly every day leading up to the first-in-the-nation primary.
Mr. DeSantis has been far less competitive in New Hampshire, polling in third place and in the single digits. The Florida governor plans to fly from Iowa to South Carolina where he’s also polling in single digits and trailing both Ms. Haley and Mr. Trump.
He will hold two campaign events in the Palmetto State and then travel to New Hampshire to campaign later on Tuesday.
Mr. DeSantis kept a busy schedule Monday, holding three separate campaign events and making the case in television interviews that he would be stronger than Ms. Haley in a head-to-head match with Mr. Trump.
He promoted his leadership in Florida, where he blocked COVID-19 mandates and lockdowns, to caucusgoers in Dubuque.
“When the times are tough and the chips are down, I’ll be a president you can count on. I won’t back down I won’t budge and I’ll fight back against the people who are destroying this country,’ he said
Ms. Haley, who visited with patrons at a diner, and held a telephone town hall, had a different take.
“We know that momentum that we take from Iowa is going to go into New Hampshire,” Ms. Haley said on Fox Business Network’s “Cavuto: Coast to Coast.” “It’s going to get even stronger in South Carolina until we finish this. This will be a two-person race with me and Donald Trump.”
The caucuses marked the culmination of months of candidates traveling across the state for town-hall events and to rub shoulders with voters inside restaurants and living rooms.
Ms. Haley is viewed as the most likely beneficiary of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s decision to bow out of the race. Mr. Christie’s support was composed of independents, moderates and left-leaning voters, though that effect might be offset by Mr, Ramaswamy’s dropping out.
The Trump team, however, is confident that Ms. Haley is more of a media manifestation than a serious threat to the former president’s chances of winning.
The Trump campaign said Ms. Haley has a major “math” problem in New Hampshire.
By Trump campaign adviser Chris LaCivita’s calculations, Ms. Haley needs a record-setting number of independents — more than half of the GOP primary electorate — to turn out to have a chance of winning.
“That’s just not going to happen in a Republican primary with Donald Trump on the ballot,” he said.
• Susan Ferrechio reported from Manchester, New Hampshire.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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