College of Political Knowledge

2024 Election Series

It is cold in Iowa and the faithful came out to their local place of caucusing to vote for the GOP candidates…..and as a public service IST will break the vote down and the results of that vote.

We will begin with the winner and it was anything but a shocker….

To absolutely nobody’s surprise, Donald Trump has won Monday night’s Iowa caucuses in the GOP primary. The AP called it quickly, roughly 30 minutes after the first results started coming in. About the only suspense in regard to Trump is whether he will wind up with 50% of the vote, and whether he will win by a record margin (Bob Dole has the mark at nearly 13 percentage points). The bigger issue for the overall campaign is whether Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley will finish second, and whether DeSantis will do well enough to fend off calls that he drop from the race ahead of next week’s first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire.

The New York Times offers some quick big-picture analysis of the Iowa victory, which it notes Trump failed to secure in his 2016 campaign: “Regardless of what comes next, Mr. Trump’s Iowa victory amounts to a remarkable resurrection of a political career that had once appeared in tatters.” Politico similarly observes that he goes into New Hampshire “with few signs of vulnerability” and where he still holds a large lead in the polls despite recent progress made by Haley. The quick win suggests it could also be a short primary reason should Trump rack up delegates and deprive his rivals of a path to victory, per the Wall Street Journal

Coming in 2nd place for the silver was another mini-dictator, DeSantis.

Yes, Donald Trump won easily. But in the much closer race for second place in the Iowa caucuses, things were too close to call well into Monday night. Ultimately, though, the AP called Ron DeSantis as the second-place winner with 21.2%, edging out Nikki Haley, who got 19.1% of the vote. Both were well behind Trump at more than 51%, according to NPR and the New York Times. (Heading into Monday, Trump had hoped to get at least 50% of the vote and to win by a record margin, and he was on track to do both.)

Both DeSantis and Haley were hoping for a second-place finish to cement themselves as the obvious No. 2 in the race ahead of next week’s New Hampshire primary. But given how close their numbers were, neither “will be able to claim the clear Trump-alternative mantle” based on Iowa, per Politico. But at least for DeSantis, the results may quiet critics demanding he drop from the race. Both addressed supporters late Monday, the Guardian reports:

• DeSantis: “They threw everything but the kitchen sink at us,” the Florida governor said, but “we’ve got our ticket punched out of Iowa.”
• Haley: Despite her third-place finish, the former South Carolina governor said, “I can safely say, tonight Iowa safely made this Republican primary a two person race. … Our campaign is the last best hope of stopping the Trump-Biden nightmare.”

Were there any causalities from this vote?

Yep there was one…..the d/bag himself Vivek…..

Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy suspended his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination on Monday and endorsed former President Donald Trump after a disappointing finish in Iowa’s leadoff caucuses, the AP reports. Ramaswamy, a 38-year-old political novice who sought to replicate Trump’s rise as a bombastic, wealthy outsider, said, “As of this moment we are going to suspend this presidential campaign. There’s no path for me to be the next president absent things that we don’t want to see happen in this country.” During the campaign, he needled his opponents but praised Trump as “the best president of the 21st century.” He argued, though, that Republicans should opt for “fresh legs” and “take our America First agenda to the next level.”

The approach, including his call for “revolution,” vaulted Ramaswamy into the mix of candidates vying to overtake Trump—or at least become a viable alternative. His decision to drop out, though, becomes the latest confirmation that the former president, even at 77 years old and under multiple criminal indictments, still dominates Republican politics and remains the overwhelming favorite to win the GOP nomination for the third consecutive time. Ramaswamy’s failure also affirms how difficult it is for any Republican other than Trump to push the bounds of party orthodoxy, as the first-time candidate found little political reward for positions such as his opposition to aid for Israel and Ukraine.

There you have all the edge of the seat drama of the Iowa vote.

Aren’t you lad I am here so you can go about life without having to observe this circus of errors?

The GOP field has narrowed to three…..will New Hampshire be the death of the Haley campaign?

Stay tuned!

More riveting drama is coming.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”