DES MOINES, Iowa — Former President Donald Trump won the first GOP presidential voting contest of 2024 in Iowa on Monday by a wide margin, according to multiple reports.
Despite historically harsh weather conditions, Iowans turned out for Trump, putting him one step closer to the GOP nomination in the 2024 presidential election, according to multiple outlets. Trump received 51% of the vote, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 21.2% and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley at 19.1%, according to The Associated Press. (RELATED: Iowa Voters Say Trump Conviction Wouldn’t Affect Their Support: POLL)
“It really is an honor that, minutes after, they’ve announced I’ve won—against very credible competition—great competition, actually,” Trump told FOX News. “It is a tremendous thing and a tremendous feeling. We have to get our country back. Our country has gone through so many bad things over the last three years and it is continuing to go through bad things.”
The victory came despite popular Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds endorsing DeSantis in November, arguing that she didn’t believe the former president could win a general election against President Joe Biden.
SIOUX CENTER, IOWA – JANUARY 05: Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump arrives for a rally on January 05, 2024, in Sioux Center, Iowa. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Andrew Romeo, spokesperson for the DeSantis campaign, criticized the early calls predicting Trump as the winner on X.
A recent poll revealed that 61% of Iowans said that their support would not change if Trump was convicted in any of his trials, and 20% said their support for the former president would increase if Trump was convicted.
Trump did not hold as many events as his fellow candidates, holding only 13 events since November, according to NBC News.
DeSantis and Ramaswamy have both completed the “full Grassley” of Iowa’s 99 counties named after Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who makes the trip every year.
Trump is currently polling at an average of 61% nationally and nearly 44% on average in the next primary battle in New Hampshire, according to RealClearPolitics. Trump also revealed Wednesday during a town hall on FOX News that he has picked his vice presidential running mate, but his campaign walked the comments back, saying that the matter hasn’t been discussed in “any great detail,” according to ABC News.
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