None of the nine major Iowa polls taken in the 10 days before Iowa’s Monday Republican caucus had Cruz ahead, according to RealClearPolitics, which compiles the surveys. So far, the three governors, along with Senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas, have all been clustered closely together in the polls, far behind Mr Trump.
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Razor tight race… A Bernie Sanders campaign sign is seen at a Democratic Party Caucus at Jackson Township Fire Station.
Trump tweeted, “Because I was told I could not do well in Iowa, I spent very little there, a fraction of Cruz & Rubio”. “This is not a time for waiting”.
Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton has been declared the narrow victor of the Iowa caucuses over Senator Bernie Sanders.
Mr Sanders still faces an uphill battle against Mrs Clinton, who has deep ties throughout the party’s establishment and a strong following among a more diverse electorate that plays a larger role in primary contests in February and March.
The two will face each other again at next week’s primary in New Hampshire, where Sanders has a strong lead of 18 points.
“Sanders gave some indication that his campaign has serious legs”, said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University.
Senator Ted Cruz said he felt “fabulous” after his win in Iowa. “What we witnessed in Iowa yesterday was the result of the strength of Marco’s candidacy”, a statement from the Rubio campaign said as quoted by the news outlet. This is unlikely to help him in liberal-leaning New Hampshire, where Messrs Trump and Rubio are now the favourites. “The first contest is always a litmus test as to whether this is real or ephemeral”.
“To tell you the truth, the Iowa caucus is so complicated, it’s not 100 percent sure that we didn’t win it”, Sanders told Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie on TODAY Wednesday. It’s also important that the population of Iowa (and other early primary states like New Hampshire) are overwhelmingly White and not reflective of the greater population of the U.S. But Cruz will need to broaden his appeal to repeat his success in New Hampshire, where Donald Trump leads in the latest polls.
The close caucus race between Clinton and Sanders wasn’t just about candidate campaigning and voter deliberation.
“People are calling because of the outcome”, said state Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex).
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President Barack Obama won Iowa in 2008 and 2012 for the Democrats, however, the eventual Republican candidate did not have the same success.
