Mr Donald Trump, the NY businessman seeking the Republican US presidential nomination, said on Tuesday (Feb 2) that he felt “a tinge” of disappointment after losing to Texas Senator Ted Cruz in the Iowa caucuses.
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Yet Cruz’s victory meant much more than his one-delegate margin.
Donald Trump has taken issue with the result of the Iowa caucus.
Even with an elaborate campaign operation and backing from most Democratic Party leaders, Clinton was unable to stem a flood of enthusiasm from young and liberal voters for Sanders, the eccentric Vermont senator whose viability in a general election is still deeply questioned. For Democrats, the two-person race pits mainstream liberal Clinton against “democratic socialist” Sanders. First, entrance or exit polls of voters arriving to caucuses or leaving voting precincts (on Monday, entrance polls were used).
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”.
His first tweet actually claimed that Cruz “illegally” stole Iowa, but he has since deleted that language: now he accuses Cruz of just plain ol’ stealing (his lawyers must be quick on the Twitter trigger).
New Hampshire is the second in a series of state-by-state nominating contests to decide who will be each party’s candidate for president in November.
Mr Trump referred to an email that Mr Cruz’s campaign sent on Monday that implied another Republican candidate, Ben Carson, was about to drop out of the race and that his Iowa backers should be urged to vote for the Texan instead.
Asked by CNN’s Sara Murray if his finish in Iowa damaged his brand as a “winner”, Trump shook his head.
It works best when the leadoff states’ somewhat different electorates give full hearings to a variety of candidates and set the stage for the months ahead.
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“We’re in this for the long haul”, Sanders told reporters as he arrived in New Hampshire where polls put him as a strong favorite. Other candidates will decide by then whether to follow former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to the sidelines.
