As a result of their low votes in the Iowa caucus, Democrat Martin O’Malley and Republican Mike Huckabee both suspended their presidential campaigns late on February 1, 2016.
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Former reality TV star Trump called for the nullification of Cruz’s Iowa victory or a new vote in the state, which holds the first nominating contest in the presidential election. The real estate mogul argued for a “new election” or for the Texas senator’s results to be “nullified”.
The spark for Trump’s fury toward Cruz stemmed from a report from the Cruz campaign on Monday that fellow GOP candidate Ben Carson was ready to drop out of the race.
Senator Rubio, with 23 percent, made a stronger-than-expected finish and establishing himself as the mainstream Republican alternative to the two front-running rivals in the race to represent the party at the November.
Cruz won 27.7% of the vote in the Republican caucus in Iowa, staking his claim to be the new standard bearer of the right.
But Trump and Rubio also received “a greater share” of their support from evangelical Christians than either former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in 2012 or Sen.
Cruz has up until now often spoken of the race as a two-man contest between him and Trump; the change in rhetoric on Cruz’s part suggests an acknowledgment of the dynamic shifting.
Before Trump’s tweets on Wednesday, Cruz apologized to Carson for the action attributed to one of its staffers, identified as Spence Rogers. According to Trump, there should be new election because Cruz’s campaign deliberately spread false rumors that influenced voter decisions at the last moment. As Rubio said in his own post-Iowa speech, he will unify the party around his candidacy, something I think that neither Trump or Cruz will be able to do.
Now, it’s true that Cruz engaged in more than his share of last-minute shenanigans in efforts to sway Iowa Republicans.
A Des Moines Register poll, released Saturday night, showed Trump with a five-point lead over Cruz.
“It’s clear that there were people who tried to take advantage of a situation”, Carson said.
If Rubio does well in New Hampshire and comes in far ahead of Chris Christie, John Kasich and Jeb Bush, major donors who had supported one of these “establishment” candidates will likely put their money on him.
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“He has said really outlandish things in the past and none of them have really hurt him in the polls”.
