Just like Iowans, New Hampshire voters have been inundated with campaign ads and visits from presidential candidates.
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With all precincts reporting, Clinton led Sanders by less than three-tenths of 1 per cent. The Iowa Democratic Party declared the contest “the closest in Iowa Democratic caucus history”.
Yes, a win is a win for the Clinton campaign.
Cruz – who flew in from Cedar Rapids to Des Moines to celebrate the win – will be celebrating the win in Iowa, the first of the two Caucuses which help to predict the future president, with a country music band with “blue collar roots”. “We had no name recognition, and we were taking on the most powerful political organisation in the United States of America”, he said, in a reference to Clinton. According to Norm Sterzenbach, a former executive director of the Iowa Democratic Party, since 1792 nobody who came lower than third ended up winning the nomination. And in an interview with NBC’s Kasie Hunt, Sanders didn’t rule out challenging the results.
But the razor-thin outcome, decided in part by coin tosses, could still put Clinton in a precarious position heading into New Hampshire, where Sanders holds a substantial lead. “It’s going to send such a great message that we are not going to take it any more”, Trump said, predicting a “tremendous” victory. “Clinton advisers … said they did not know if a significant staff shakeup was at hand, but they said that the Clintons were disappointed with Monday night’s result and wanted to ensure that her organization, political messaging and communications strategy were in better shape for the contests to come”, the New York Times writes. I give you my deepest gratitude.
NBC News has given the victory to Clinton, and The Associated Press reports that Clinton leads Sanders 22 to 21 in Iowa delegates after the caucuses.
Clinton expressed confidence Monday morning and reiterated her argument that Sanders won’t be able to deliver on some of his ambitions policy proposals. He said the result was a “virtual tie”. The good news is that actual voters are now in the mix, giving the rest of us a real sense of what voters, in certain places anyway, are thinking about all these people.
Let’s get ready for the first one-on-one Democratic debate Thursday!
On the Democratic side, meanwhile, the establishment favourite was sweating. But Clinton only carried the “somewhat liberal” vote by six points.
Clinton won among past caucus-goers, 59%-35%.
Over 4 in 10 Democrats say they’re first-time caucus attendees.
Clinton won among those 65 and older, 69%-26%.
Rubio will also leave Iowa with a leg up over other establishment rivals including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who have a lot at stake in New Hampshire.
Cruz, a conservative lawmaker from Texas, won the first state Republican contest in the 2016 race with 28 % of the vote compared with 24 % for businessman Trump. We do that by securing the nomination, and then we do it by winning and going into that white house as others before have, determined to push forward on the great goals and values that unite us as Americans.’ . And so next week’s New Hampshire primary is key for him. And who, exactly, does he target on the GOP side?
Republican Marco Rubio also had a strong night in Iowa, which could set him up as the best placed potential establishment candidate to take on “outsider” challengers Cruz and Trump. Expectations are everything, and Trump was expected to win, while Rubio was predicted to be a distant third.
‘We love New Hampshire.
By the way, the exit polls maybe revealed your three-way GOP race over the next couple of months.
Claiming victory, Cruz fired immediate shots at both Trump and the party elites he has so infuriated by waging an anti-establishment crusade that has nevertheless endeared him to the GOP’s rank and file.
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Most telling, but the polls and the pundits were wrong. We all have some explaining to do. But he finished second.
