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Clinton takes Iowa, beating back Sanders’ strong challenge

The next stop for the candidates will be the New Hampshire caucus, which votes next Tuesday.

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Emerging from Monday night’s Iowa caucuses, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton – the respective Republican and Democratic polling front-runners – now appear locked in a dog fight heading into the New Hampshire primary.

Clinton took 699.57 state delegate equivalents while Sanders took 695.49, Dr. McGuire said in a statement early Tuesday. The Iowa Democratic Party hadn’t named a caucus victor.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a campaign event in Knoxville, Iowa January 25, 2016.

“I think Rubio will get what he needed out of Iowa, which is to come into New Hampshire as one of the stories”, Dante Scala, associate professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire, told the Los Angeles Times.

However, Sanders’ spokeswoman Rania Batrice said there were questions about the results in several other counties.

A spokesman for Rubio, with a Cuban-American heritage like Cruz, dismissed the chances of Kasich, Christie and Bush, saying the contest has now boiled down to a three-way race among Cruz, Trump and Rubio. I think they’ll really like me.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is also skipping New Hampshire but will go straight to SC, which holds its Republican presidential primary on February 20.

Speaking at her own rally, Clinton said she was “breathing a big sigh of relief”, even though the race with Sanders was too close to call.

Iowa Democratic Party officials said they were gathering results from a small number of precincts where those in charge had failed to report results in Monday’s caucuses.

Trump, for his part, argued he beat initial expectations by placing second and predicted he’d still win in New Hampshire.

Clinton, the former secretary of state, USA senator and first lady, though regarded as the front-runner, faces stiff competition from Vermont Senator Sanders, who appeals to liberal Democrats who are discontent with the widening gap of wealth in the country.

“I honestly don’t know what happened”, he said. “But tonight here in Iowa the people of this great state have sent a very clear message”.

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The results in Iowa made Trump’s nomination far less likely, and Cruz’s and Rubio’s far more likely. “To be a dead tie, or practically a tie, is a huge accomplishment”, said Sanders delegate Kevin Sweeney. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley ended his longshot bid for the Democratic nomination, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee dropped out of the Republican race.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders I-Vt. speaks during a caucus night party on Monday Feb. 1 2016 in Des Moines Iowa