The focus of the GOP presidential primary is now on New Hampshire after the overwhelming victory of former President Donald Trump in Monday’s Iowa Republican Caucuses.
The Republican primary in the Granite State is scheduled for January 23, which means that the three contenders- Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley will have a week to campaign for votes here.
What does the polls say?
Prediction polls in the state are now favoring Trump, with Haley following closely behind. Haley is polling far better in New Hampshire than she did in Iowa, where she finished in second place. More than half of Iowa voters supported Trump, 77, establishing what could be a close and controversial rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden, 81, in the race for the presidency in November.
In Iowa, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, 45, came in well behind Trump, placing former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, 51, in third place. Trump is staking his claim that he can eliminate his competitors and expedite the typically months-long Republican selection process by winning several convincing early primary contests.
Like Iowa, the candidates have to deal with bitter cold and snow while trying to get supporters to campaign events before the New Hampshire primary on January 23. “Rightly or wrongly chaos follows him. You know I’m right,” Haley, who held the rally with New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, said to cheers
Trump has refused to debate with his Republican rivals
Despite leading in polls, Trump has declined to engage in debate with his Republican competitors. The debate, which had been scheduled for Thursday, was one of two such occasions that were planned for the New England state’s contest on January 23.”We intended to host a debate coming out of the Iowa caucuses, but we always knew that would be contingent on the candidates,” a spokesperson for ABC News stated.
Despite Trump being the first serving or prior president of the United States to be charged with criminal charges, his victory in the Iowa Republican primary by an enormous margin strengthens his argument that his nomination is unavoidable.
In the farm state of the Midwest, he got 51% of the vote, easily exceeding Bob Dole’s record victory margin of 12.8 percentage points in 1988.
99% of the predicted votes were counted, and DeSantis received 21% and Haley 19%, according to Edison Research. Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former governor of Arkansas Asa Hutchinson both canceled their candidacy after the outcome.
Speaking on Tuesday night at the former president’s campaign rally was Ramaswamy, who is supporting Trump.
Legal troubles faced in elections
The former president intends if elected again, to punish his political opponents and implement higher duties on imports. He claims that Biden’s victory in the 2020 election was the result of extensive fraud.
His fake allegations of voter fraud were welcomed by nearly two-thirds of Iowa caucus participants, who stated that they did not believe Biden could have defeated Trump. Despite his criminal conviction, almost 60% of respondents said Trump had the qualifications to be president.
His increasingly dictatorial remarks, like as the assertion that undocumented immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country,” have received criticism. He also promised, without providing details, to put an end to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine within a day.
Biden portrayed the November election as a battle against “extreme MAGA Republicans,” a reference to Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan, and asked supporters to give to his reelection campaign, capitalizing on Trump’s resounding victory in Iowa.
Although Trump’s success in Iowa demonstrated his continued appeal to Republican voters, it is still uncertain how this will play out with the American people in general in November.
Due to their early positions on the campaign schedule, the largely white and barely populated states of Iowa and New Hampshire have historically been involved in presidential elections in significant ways. However, Democrats have rewritten the rules, moving their first nominating contests to states with larger populations and greater ethnic diversity South Carolina, Nevada, and other states that they claim more accurately represent the country.
