It’s over. Stick a fork in the 2024 Republican presidential primary election. As expected, former President Donald Trump crushed Governor Ron DeSantis and Ambassador Nikki Haley. With 92% of precincts reporting, President Trump has garnered 51% of the vote, and Gov. DeSantis came in 2nd with 21%m narrowly edging out Nikki Haley by 2 percentage points.
President Trump won over Evangelical voters, a voter bloc that Gov. DeSantis had aggressively courted, and one that Bob Vander Plaats all but guaranteed would come out for DeSantis.
Evangelicals broke for Trump in a big way, but the issue that steered the Iowa Caucuses was the current illegal immigration and border crisis that has dominated the news since President Joe Biden took office.
The Iowa Caucuses was a crippling blow to DeSantis, who bet this presidential campaign on Iowa.
Rubio Endorses Trump Before Iowa
DeSantis has narrowly edged out Haley for second place, but he might as well come in 3rd place because he needed to create significant distance between himself and Haley going into next week’s New Hampshire primary election.
Veteran Republican strategist Roger Stone, who is an ardent supporter of President Trump, called Trump's victory in Iowa "historic."
"Yuge! A win of historic proportions. Is abundantly clear that Donald Trump has captured the grassroots of the modern Republican Party and it is time for Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley to pack it in so that Trump can begin his offensive against the Democrats," stated Stone.
DeSantis has a significant decision to make going into New Hampshire considering that Iowa was his Alamo last stand.
Because he is losing to both Trump and Haley in New Hampshire and South Carolina, does DeSantis drop out after Iowa?
“We are going to come together, it’s going to happen soon,” said President Trump during his victory speech.
President Trump then kept to his message of unifying the nation and actually congratulated Gov DeSantis and Ambassador Haley.
“I want to congratulate Ron and Nikki for having a good time together. I think they both actually did very well,” added Trump as he spoke in a unifying voice.
Trump went on to say that the U.S. was going to “Drill Baby Drill” and lock down the southern border with Mexico.
New Hampshire’s primary election is Tuesday, January 23.
