DeSantis comes in second.
Vivek ending his campaign. He endorses Trump.
Trump’s speech
He gave props to Ron, Nikki, and Vivek:
“I want to congratulate Ron and Nicky for having a good time together. We’re all having a good time together.”He said that both “actually did very well,” adding that “we don’t even know what the outcome of second places.” He then honed in on Vivek Ramaswamy, saying “he did a hell of a job.” “He came from zero and he’s got a big percent, probably 8%, almost 8%. And that’s an amazing job.” Trump’s comments come as DeSantis and Haley battle for second place, with DeSantis sitting at 21.3% and Haley at 19.1%. Ramaswamy is below Haley at 7.7%.
With 79% of the precincts in and Trump with a large lead, yes, he did win Iowa.
Then-Sen. Bob Dole won the Iowa caucus by 12.8% in 1988. Trump will now have the largest margin in history. That’s about 30% at the time I’m writing this.
I’d like to know how many showed up to vote. I have no doubt the hardcore Trump people showed up. They always do.
I also cannot wait to see how DeSantis and Haley will react after this. Will they change strategies? Will they finally go after Trump? I wonder if Vivek regrets not responding to Trump.
But a reminder:
This is how I am going to cover every race. I get mad when ANY media outlet calls ANY race way too early.
Remember how angry everyone was when Fox called Arizona right away in 2020?
I will do this correctly and wait for the numbers to come out.
I prefer to wait until it cannot be changed at all. Also, I’m a libertarian. I have no one in the Democrat or Republican race. I can only vote in the Oklahoma libertarian primary.
I refuse to call the caucus. I am furious that all media outlets called Iowa for Trump for a minute; at least, that’s how it felt after voting started. As you can tell from below, there is a process for voting.
No precinct should have had the ability to call for Trump that quickly.
Trump is leading as of 9:48 PM ET:
You have to caucus in person at your precinct. Nothing is done virtually or by mail.
The state has 1,657 precincts. It is a closed caucus, but you can register or change your party on the caucus day.
We should know the results a few hours after voting. Hopefully, it doesn’t end up like Iowa in 2020 with the Democrats!
Does President Donald Trump need 50%? It’s significant because Trump has bragged about being above 50 points, some as high as 60, in polls.
Gov. Kim Reynolds said it would not look good if Trump falls below 50%:
“I think it’s going to be bad for President Trump if he doesn’t come in over 50. He’s not meeting expectations that the media and the polls have been putting out for the past several months,” Reynolds argued in an interview Monday morning on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends.”
Trump has changed his tune:
“No one has ever won the Iowa caucus by more than 12%,” Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita told Fox News Digital on Saturday. “I think the public polls are a little rich.”Trump, speaking with reporters on Sunday, said “there seems to be something about 50%.””I think they’re doing it so that they can set a high expectation. So if we end up with 49%, which would be about 25 points bigger than anyone else ever got. They can say he had a failure, it was a failure. You know fake news,” he argued.
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