Trump will win Iowa Republican caucuses, CNN projects
CNN
By Gregory Krieg, CNN
(CNN) — Former President Donald Trump will win the Iowa caucuses, CNN projects, solidifying his place as the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination as he attempts a historic political comeback nearly three years after leaving the White House in disgrace.
Trump’s victory in this, his first election since losing to Joe Biden in 2020, put to bed any lingering questions about his hold over the GOP, the potency of his right-wing message and whether his legal troubles would hobble him with primary voters.
“The people of Iowa sent a clear message tonight: Donald Trump will be the next Republican nominee for President. It’s now time to make him the next President of the United States,” Alex Pfeiffer, a spokesman for Trump’s super PAC, MAGA Inc., said in a statement.
CNN projects Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will finish second in the Iowa caucuses, ahead of former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
But Trump’s victory puts new pressure on his two rivals ahead of next week’s contest in New Hampshire, where Haley is hoping to impress among a more ideologically diverse electorate.
The Iowa outcome is a deeper cut for DeSantis, who along with aligned outside groups spent heavily in the state hoping to overtake Trump and signal a changing of the guard in national Republican politics.
It was not to be.
Determined to avoid the disappointment of eight years ago, when he finished second behind Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the caucuses, Trump’s campaign invested in an estimable ground game. The focus: finding and turning out new voters.
“Other candidates are betting on turning out existing caucus-goers,” a senior Trump campaign official told CNN last month. “Our focus is on finding and creating first-time caucus-goers.”
The snow and freezing temperatures ahead of the caucuses likely complicated those efforts and it is unclear, for now, how much of a role the new strategy played in delivering the state to Trump.
What’s more certain is that Trump also appears to have won over evangelical Christian voters in the state – a key voting bloc that broke for Cruz in 2016 but has since grown into one of the former president’s most loyal and fervent constituencies, in Iowa and beyond.
There is no doubt, however, that the Republican nomination – which would be a remarkable third in three tries – is now in sight for the former president.
Earlier Monday, the DeSantis campaign criticized news outlets for projecting Trump’s victory early in the evening and before some caucus sites had completed voting. In a statement posted on social media, spokesman Andrew Romeo called it “absolutely outrageous.”
CNN projected Trump’s victory in Iowa at 8:30 p.m. ET based on his commanding lead in the entrance polling and early results. Several other news outlets projected Trump would win in Iowa within minutes of each other.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Kristen Holmes, Steve Contorno and Kaitlan Collins contributed to this report.
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