Former President Donald Trump has won the GOP Iowa caucus.
Trump won the night with 51% of the vote, with 2nd place going to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis who garnered 21%. Haley brought in 19% of the vote.
Vivek Ramaswamy placed 4th with 8% of Iowa GOP caucus goers. In a concession speech later at night in Iowa, Ramaswamy said he was dropping out of the race.
Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson and businesses man/pastor Ryan Binkley both brought in less than 1% of the vote.
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who has already dropped out of the race, also brought in less than 1%.
Trump led in early results and the race was called for him by numerous news outlets when approximately 1% of the vote had been counted. The decision to call the race before all votes had been cast was criticized by some of Trump’s opponents in the race.
By the end of the night, Trump won 98 of 99 counties across the state, with one county still close to call at the time of this writing. With 99% of the vote in, Haley led Trump by 1 vote in Johnson County.
Trump’s victory was historic for the Iowa GOP caucus, with the previous high victory being 45%.
Turnout was lower than expected with 110,000 total votes cast. Some estimates had the turnout expected to be at a low of 160,000 and a high of over 200,000 voters. The 2016 Iowa caucus had a total of 187,000 voters.
It’s unclear how much the cold weather in Iowa, which was below zero across most of the state, had on voter turnout. Some places, such as Sioux Center, had a reported wind chill of -31 degrees Fahrenheit.
Candidates had a variety of responses to the results. Trump posted on Truth Social:
“THANK YOU IOWA, I LOVE YOU ALL!!! DONALD J. TRUMP
Citation
DeSantis responded to the results in a campaign speech, stating,
“They threw everything but the kitchen sink at us. The spent almost $50 million dollars, attacking us. No ones faced that much all the way, just through Iowa. The media was against us. They were writing our obituary months ago. They even called the election before people even got a chance to vote.”
Citation
Hailey posted the following message on X, along with her campaign speech:
“Thank you, Iowa! You’re faithful, patriotic & hardworking, and I’m grateful to each of you! Now it’s on to New Hampshire, where this campaign is the last best hope of stopping the Trump-Biden rematch that no one wants. We offer America a better choice.”
Citation
Ramaswamy announced the suspension of his campaign and endorsement of Trump in a concession speech, saying in part,
“As of this moment, we are going to suspend this presidential campaign. This is going to have to be, there is no path for me to be the next president, absent things we don’t want to see happen in this country.”
Citation
In exit polling released by Fox News, 40% of voters said immigration was their number one issue. 34% cited the economy as their top issue.
The next primary state nomination for the GOP is the New Hampshire primary on January 23rd.
