Monday’s Iowa Caucus did exactly what it was supposed to do — shape the race for the Republican nomination for President.
The caucus went pretty much as we expected it would. In my opinion, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley lost a couple of percentage points from voters who weren’t enthusiastic to brave the temperatures and caucus while President Donald J. Trump benefitted from supporters who would have been willing to walk across broken pieces of glass to cast their votes for the 45th President.
I would also add that even though Vivek Ramaswamy may be disappointed in his showing, I can guarantee he was at 0.0 percent when he entered the race. I find it difficult to believe any of the candidates who finished above him finished with 8 percent more than they started with.
Ramaswamy, though, suspended his campaign on Monday and offered his full support to Trump. Ramaswamy vowed to do everything he could to ensure Trump wins the White House in 2024.
Nikki Haley’s campaign had an interesting twist on the numbers. The third-place finisher proclaimed it is now a two-person race, citing her position in the polls in New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Haley’s performance should be considered a disappointment. She had the entire Romney/Bush/Cheney wing of the GOP to herself and failed to muster 20 percent.
Had the Republican Party of Iowa cracked down on same-day registration, her numbers likely would have been even lower.
Ron DeSantis’ campaign said it had over 60,000-some commit to caucus cards filled out. But DeSantis secured just 23,420 votes. To be fair, some of those cards were likely duplicates and some people likely stayed home due to the weather. Others may have changed their mind.
Who knows?
I’m not excited that the media declared Trump the winner of the caucus before votes were cast in many sites across the state, but I don’t believe it influenced the caucus results at all.
The DeSantis campaign, however, called it election interference on the part of the media after coming up more than 30 points short.
“It is absolutely outrageous that the media would participate in election interference by calling the race before tens of thousands of Iowans even had a chance to vote,” said communications director Andrew Romeo. “The media is in the tank for Trump and this is the most egregious example yet.”
I understand being upset, but it was a 30-point gap. Come on.
Never Back Down PAC also criticized the media, saying that the outlets violated “longstanding rules” and “inteferred” in Iowans’ decisions.
James Uthmeier, the campaign manager for DeSantis, said he was speaking during a caucus when people started getting alerts that the race was over.
“One guy said, ‘Why do we even bother voting if it’s already over,'” Uthmeier said. “That is absurd. That challenges the very tenets of our Republican democracy. And that should not happen. We still expect a good night. I know, you know, it’s going to take a while for votes to come in. But you can’t taint the process like that, having a victory declared before people have even voted before arguments have been heard. That’s not right.”
DeSantis, for his part, said his ticket was punched out of Iowa following his second-place finish.
“They threw everything but the kitchen sink at us,” DeSantis said. “They spent almost $50 million attacking us. No one’s faced that much all the way just through Iowa. The media was against us. They were writing our obituary months ago. They even called the election before people even got a chance to vote.”
My wife and I attempted to caucus, we went to the wrong place and it was so cold it was tough taking my kids with me. So we ended up not doing it. We committed to desantis several times from people stopping at my door.
At Marion County’s Pella caucus, Nikki Haley proxy speaking for her said, “They will never let Trump near the White House again.” Who is they? Is this just campaign banter or is it a veiled threat? It seems to me Haley is the face of the globalist establishment machine against the populist Trump. Even though United Nations Haley is all smiley face and happy with her third-place victory, the globalist establishment cabal is nervous.