Donald Trump was projected as the runaway winner in Iowa’s Republican presidential caucuses on Monday night, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis looked set to come in second place.
Nikki Haley, a former ambassador to the U.N. and governor of South Carolina, was on track to finish third, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy appeared on course for fourth.
Ramaswamy subsequently announced he’d quit the race and endorsed Trump.
Trump has enjoyed big leads for months in most polls of the early states, so a main focus for Iowa’s first-in-the-nation voting has been who would get second — and how close that candidate could get to the former president.
Now that the results are nearly all in, the apparent second-place finish should give a boost to the DeSantis campaign. Haley’s team may be disappointed with third after having gained momentum in recent weeks, though she was not far off from the No. 2 spot.
With 90% of Iowa’s vote counted, Trump had 51% support, DeSantis was at 21.3%, while Haley got 19% and Ramaswamy 7.7%. That’s according to Associated Press data.
Ahead of Monday’s voting in Iowa, Trump was looking on track for a victory as he had support above 50% in polls focused on the state, while DeSantis and Haley were in the teens. That’s according to a RealClearPolitics moving average for Iowa polls.
New Hampshire’s Jan. 23 Republican primary has been expected to be a closer contest, especially after former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie left the 2024 presidential race last week. Christie, a vocal Trump critic, didn’t have much traction in Iowa, but he had been attracting about 11% support in New Hampshire, putting him in third place there, according to RCP’s average. Adding his support to the 29% that Haley has been getting in the Granite State might put her total near Trump’s 44%.
Other key steps in the race to become the GOP challenger to President Joe Biden, the prohibitive Democratic Party favorite, include South Carolina’s Feb. 24 Republican primary and the Super Tuesday primaries on March 5, when more than a dozen states are scheduled to vote.
Trump’s economic proposals for a second term include a 10% tariff on all imports, making another attempt to end Obamacare
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and addressing student debt by launching a free online college called the American Academy.
Haley’s economic proposals include raising Social Security’s retirement age but only for younger people just entering the system, along with eliminating the federal tax on gasoline
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In his economic plan, DeSantis has leaned heavily into energy
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policy to address inflation, and he’s promised to rein in spending and criticized the Trump administration’s outlays.
U.S. stock futures
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were lower.
