Speaking on CNN, former Biden campaign spokesperson Kate Bedingfield notes two ways in which Trump’s coalition has evolved from 2016 in ways that make challenging him prohibitive. According to the 2024 entrance polls, Trump is winning both independents and degree-holders, albeit narrowly. By beating out Nikki Haley among voters with a college degree by two points, Trump has improved from 2016 (when Ted Cruz won that demographic by just three points). But in 2016, Trump tied Marco Rubio for first place with independent voters at 22 percent apiece.
Trump’s late attacks on Vivek make sense when you realize he just wanted to run up the score.
Haley is going to have a hard time claiming anything resembling momentum out of an Iowa caucus that was such a Trump blowout it was called at 7:30pm CT sharp. Trump looks set to claim well above 50% of the vote if the entrance polls suggesting that well of 50% of voters are “Team MAGA.”
DeSantis’s campaign is over tonight, regardless of how long it takes him to acknowledge it formally.
And that’s the way it is, folks.
Waukee, Iowa—Wisconsin Congressman Derrick Van Orden is here giving the nominating speech on behalf of former President Donald Trump.
He cites Trump’s record being tough on immigration and says caucus-goers should support him because he did not start any foreign wars, adding that he’s had more than 50 friends die in foreign conflicts.
Van Orden concludes by recalling the day after his 36-year-old daughter died last summer, when Trump called him and his wife to offer his condolences. “There was nothing political on that phone call.”
The record speed at which Iowa was called for Trump is consistent with the polling showing him absolutely destroying the rest of the field. It would be hard to imagine him losing in New Hampshire after this showing, even if Haley edges out DeSantis for a distant second.
And now the news networks, having flown all their staffs into Des Moines for live coverage, desperately beg you not to change the channel even though they’ve declared a winner. Hey, stay tuned! Somebody’s going to come in second! Judging from the way everyone is acting on screen, it’s going to be a distant, distant second.
Assuming the AP is right in calling Iowa this early for Trump, champagne corks will be popping at Biden campaign headquarters.
Waukee, Iowa—A surrogate for biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy kicks off her nominating speech by reading the candidate’s oft-quoted “Ten Truths.”
She talks about Ramaswamy’s platform to take on the climate change “cult” and pledge to pardon January 6th “prisoners” on day one as reasons to support him. “He is the only candidate who has pledged to remove his name in Maine and Colorado,” she says, hitting the other candidates for declining to do so.
Afterwards, a Nikki Haley surrogate takes the mic to speak on behalf of the former U.N. ambassador.
“Nikki knows that a strong military doesn’t cause wars, it prevents them,” she says, citing her record cutting taxes and unemployment while governor of South Carolina. Says she will be tough on China and crack down on illegal immigration.
“I can tell that Nikki Haley cares,” she says, adding that she’s “tough.”
AP Race Call: Donald Trump wins the Republican presidential caucuses in Iowa.
Tory Taylor of the Iowa Hawkeyes set the NCAA single-season record for punting yards this year, with 4,479. That’s greater than the population of Iowa’s smallest county (Adams County has a population of 3,611).