The precinct leader explained the process of the caucus in Clive, IA. The whole process took about an hour.
Credit: Amanda SuarezDES MOINES, IOWA — The conservative, Christian coalition built and maintained by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) came out in full force on Monday night, delivering a stirring victory at the expense of front-runner and 1968 Wharton graduate Donald Trump.
In perhaps the night’s greatest surprise, Trump nearly ceded second-place on the Republican side to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), who earned 23.1 percent of the vote with 98 percent of precincts reporting. The strong showing by Rubio, who the Des Moines Register/Bloomberg poll on Saturday predicted to finish in a distant third place, provided a jolt to Trump’s momentum.
Rubio trailed Trump by 13 percent in the highly respected DSR/Bloomberg poll, but came within 2 percentage points of Trump after voters were counted by early Tuesday morning.
“This is not a time for waiting,” Rubio said in a speech to his supporters in the Marriott Hotel in downtown Des Moines. “For everything that makes this country great now hangs in the balance.”
Trump, who addressed supporters in the Sheraton Hotel in West Des Moines, sounded a somber tune with a forward-looking focus.
“We finished second, and I have to say I am just honored,” he said, adding his desire to potentially buy a farm in Iowa given how much he loved the state.
On the Democratic side, underdog Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) delivered a shocking rebuke to Clinton’s unmatched ground-level campaign organization. With 95 percent of the votes in, Clinton and Sanders were virtually tied, though the shift in momentum clearly went to the self-proclaimed “Democratic socialist.”
At the time of publication, a winner had not been declared for the Democrats.
In a speech near the Des Moines airport, Sanders acknowledged a “virtual tie” and said no matter the final result, Clinton and he would essentially split the amount of delegates.
Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley collected only 0.5 percent of the vote, due at least in part to caucus rules that prevent candidates with less than 15 percent support in a particular precinct from collecting votes. Before the night ended, O’Malley announced that he was suspending his campaign.
Some candidates, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had already set their sights on the next primary contest. Before voters had finished caucusing in Iowa, Christie was in New Hampshire, the site of next week’s primary.
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