DES MOINES, United States — Donald Trump claimed victory Monday in the Iowa caucuses — the first vote of the U.S. presidential race — cementing his status as the presumptive Republican standard-bearer to challenge President Joe Biden in of the November election.
The former president has led the polls for more than a year, but the Iowa runoff was seen as the clearest clue yet of whether he can convert his advantage into a stunning return to the House White.
In the end, major U.S. networks took just half an hour after polls opened to project the winner, with Trump securing nearly three-quarters of the early votes.
There have been questions about whether Trump’s legal problems – he faces numerous civil and criminal trials in several jurisdictions – might have dampened his support.
But the Iowa victory suggests that the 77-year-old, who left Washington under a cloud after his supporters’ 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol, has managed to turn those lawsuits into a rallying cry to galvanize his supporters. supporters.
The opening vote of the primary season, Iowa is seen as crucial to winnowing down the field and giving those left standing a springboard for the rest of the race.
As he takes his momentum into New Hampshire in eight days, the former reality TV star has a sizable lead that his rivals have failed to blunt.
Winter storm
Iowans banded together at more than 1,600 polling places across the state, braving subzero temperatures during a winter storm that forced candidates to cancel events at the last minute – and the assistants to worry about the turnout.
While voting had barely begun as Trump was declared the winner, it was not immediately clear how his closest rivals – former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis – were faring.
The ex-president’s margin of victory could be much greater than the 12-point victory which, according to his collaborators, would have allowed him to have a good evening.
Iowa represents less than two percent of the delegates awarded nationally in a party’s nominee selection process, so a big night by no means guarantees success for the rest of the nomination season.
But a strong showing is essential for candidates hoping for a boost ahead of New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.
The Trump machine was better organized than when he lost Iowa in 2016, with troops on the ground across the state.
The candidate himself, however, was off track over the past week as he voluntarily appeared in some of the many court cases, making his White House campaign one without precedent in history.
The Iowa result is crucial for DeSantis, who has shifted significant resources to the state and spent months courting voters in all 99 counties.
Analysts say anything short of a second place finish would be disastrous for the hard-line conservative, and Haley appeared to be narrowly ahead in the first hour of the caucus.
Haley tried to downplay expectations in Iowa and said she was simply looking for a strong showing before next Tuesday’s primary in her favorite state, New Hampshire.
‘Target’
She has repeatedly touted her electability against Trump, highlighting the “chaos” of his criminal cases and reminding Iowans that Republicans have lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections.
“I think we always had a target on our back because we were the ones going up, everyone else was going down and that’s a good thing,” Haley told Fox News.
Caucuses – a feature of the US election calendar – are town hall-style meetings involving speeches and debates that only a handful of states hold.
Armies of volunteers fanned out across Iowa in recent weeks, knocking on doors or manning phone banks, while candidates dominated the airwaves with appearances on talk shows and a barrage of campaign ads.
The caucuses also feature small candidates, including biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
Caucuses are also being held by Iowa Democrats, as well as absentee ballots through March, with President Joe Biden facing two challengers but no serious threat.
© Agence France-Presse
