Ted Cruz felled long-time Republican frontrunner Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton was battled into a virtual tie with rival Bernie Sanders, as Iowans held the inaugural vote of the 2016 White House race.
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But several reports emerged that in the closest precincts, stray local delegates were decided in a simple coin toss.
The Iowa Democratic Party informed the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Sen.
The focus on electing a new USA president now shifts to New Hampshire where the next set of votes will be cast on Tuesday. “Win, lose or draw we have won”.
“Tonight is a victory for the grass roots”, he told a raucous victory party in Des Moines.
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, accompanied by his wife Heidi, came out on top in Iowa.
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According to Iowa law, if “more than the requisite number of persons, including presidential electors, are found to have an equal and the highest number of votes, the election of one of them shall be determined by lot”.
Cruz’s victory is something of an upset considering Trump was leading in multiple polls heading into the caucus.
With Iowa accounting for only 1 per cent of the delegates at stake in the Democratic nominating race, Ms Clinton is already far ahead of Mr Sanders in the delegate count that matters most, given her support from several hundred superdelegates who count toward the nomination.
Trump vowed to keep up his fight, telling cheering supporters that “we will go on to easily beat Hillary or Bernie or whoever the hell they throw up”. Martin O’Malley – who suspended his campaign a few hours after the caucuses began – earned 7.61 state delegate equivalents, and.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio came a close third (23 percent), followed by retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson (9 percent).
(CNN)Donald Trump on Tuesday said his decision to skip the last Republican debate before the Iowa caucuses may have led to his second-place finish in the Hawkeye State.
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The once-unthinkably-small margin between the former first lady over a self-declared “democratic socialist” is being seen as an indication the Democratic Party is conflicted between the party establishment and leftist voters.
