WASHINGTON: With a commanding victory in the first Republican presidential contest of 2024 held in Iowa on Monday, Donald Trump demonstrated his dominance over the party in spite of numerous criminal allegations against him as he attempts to face President Joe Biden in a rematch.
With more than half of the vote, Trump has gained momentum ahead of what appears to be a close and extremely contentious November election campaign against Democratic candidate Joe Biden.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, 45, defeated former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, 51, to finish well behind Trump in second place in Iowa, but neither candidate was able to establish themselves as the front-runner.
The 77-year-old Trump, the first sitting or former president of the United States to face criminal charges, won by an extraordinary margin in an Iowa Republican primary, bolstering his argument that his nomination is inevitable given his commanding lead in national polls.
With 99% of the predicted vote counted, Trump received 51%, DeSantis 21%, and Haley 19%, according to Edison Research. That victory margin easily outpaced Bob Dole’s 1988 record of 12.8 percentage points.
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Trump posted on Truth Social, his social media network, “THANK YOU IOWA, I LOVE YOU ALL!!!”
He intends to use a string of strong early primary victories to eliminate his competitors in an attempt to expedite the typically months-long Republican selection process.
After receiving little less than 8% of the vote on Monday, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy withdrew his long-shot presidential campaign and endorsed Trump.
On Tuesday, the candidates head straight to New Hampshire. Next Tuesday, the more centrist Republicans in the state will select their nominee; polls indicate that Trump is trailing far behind Haley and DeSantis in this race.
Trump’s performance in Iowa demonstrated that, despite a mob of his followers attacking the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and his 91 felony charges for trying to rig the 2020 election and keeping classified papers, he is still popular with Republican voters.
