Donald Trump’s Defeat In The Iowa Primary: What Does It Mean And Why Do His Followers Have Nothing In Common?
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas won the Iowa caucus while billionaire Donald Trump placed second. Although Trump led by seven percentage points in 10 previous polls taken of Iowa, he still suffered defeat at the caucus and nearly placed third in the running. For the Republicans who hoped that Trump’s support was a mirage, their dreams became a reality, at least in Iowa.
According to the New York Times, while Cruz received 28 percent of the vote in Iowa, Donald Trump received 24 percent. In third place was Senator Marco Rubio, who received 23 percent of the vote with 97 percent of the precincts reporting. With only a one percent advantage, Trump almost slid into third place behind Rubio instead of winning second place.
Donald Trump was last night’s biggest loser: https://t.co/WREbarBw5F #IowaCaucus pic.twitter.com/VzY4wETibz
— The Hill (@thehill) February 2, 2016
As previously reported in Inquisitr, Cruz was a surprise winner in Iowa. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson suffered a stunning defeat and went home to Florida to “change clothes” before resuming his campaign. Carson accused Cruz of sabotaging his campaign by releasing rumors that indicated that Carson would be quitting his campaign. Former governors Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Martin O’Malley of Maryland both suspended their campaigns after they failed to connect with voters. Candidates are now on their way to New Hampshire for the next primary.
In New Hampshire, Trump leads by a wide margin, and because of it, pollsters are no closer to knowing who the next candidate for the Republican nomination will be. One possibility is that with the strong numbers Marco Rubio had in the Iowa caucus, it may turn into a three-way battle among him, Trump, and Cruz for the eventual nomination.
https://t.co/EYFj2HZAQp redirects to Donald Trump’s Wikipedia page after Iowa loss https://t.co/uaMMBmMBHG pic.twitter.com/yntP7d3iIu
— Huffington Post (@HuffingtonPost) February 2, 2016
Trump’s voters did turn out in large numbers, and he had a higher turnout in Iowa than was originally predicted. The swing against Trump may have occurred because many voters who hadn’t decided made their decisions over the last month. He fared poorly among those who made their decision over the last week, and since he failed to participate in the final debate, his lack of appearance might have influenced these voters against him. All these factors may have contributed to his defeat.
ABC News reported that Ted Cruz credited an attack he committed against Donald Trump for Trump’s “New York values” as the reason for Trump’s defeat. Cruz said that when he made the attack, he knew that Americans would know what “New York values” were.
“It’s the values of the elite liberals that have done enormous damage to New York and they’re a bunch of cops and firemen and hardworking men and women in the great state of New York who are fed up with the out-of-touch values of Manhattan. This is a center-right country. The values of this country are reasonable, common sense. Their Judeo-Christian values are the reason our campaign is resonating and resonating among Reagan Democrats in particular is because getting back to the principles that built America and those principles bring us together.”
Cruz said that his comments were not meant to insult Trump, and even praised Donald Trump for being brash and getting into the race. He pointed out that it was their differences in policy matters that made him (Cruz) the better candidate. The differences in policy were fair game, according to Cruz, who said that his win was a grassroots effort and came down to an incredible victory at the grassroots level. Cruz pointed out that what made him the preferred candidate over Donald Trump and the others in the race was his ability to raise funds as well as his organizational capacity.
[Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images]
