Single vote blocks Trump from clean sweep of Iowa caucuses

Former President Donald Trump won all but one of Iowa’s 99 counties during Monday night’s caucuses, with a single vote in Johnson County blocking Trump from a clean sweep of the Hawkeye State.

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley won Johnson County by 1,271 votes, just one more than Trump’s 1,270, according to results from the Republican Party of Iowa.

It was the only county that Haley or any other GOP primary rival won during the caucuses as Trump walked away with a resounding win in the first contest of the 2024 nominating calendar.

Roughly 30 minutes after the caucuses began in Iowa, the Associated Press called the contest for Trump. The results, coming before many voters had decided on which candidate to support, sparked outrage on both sides of the aisle.

The former president won 51% of the vote, nearly 30 percentage points above Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) at 21.2% and Haley closely behind at 19.1%.

Trump ended the night securing 98 of the 99 counties and won by the largest margin of victory in Iowa caucus history. Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole previously won the contested Republican Iowa caucuses in 1988 by 12.8 points.

In his victory speech, Trump called for unity within the GOP as he seeks to consolidate the party ahead of the Jan. 23 New Hampshire primary.

“We want to come together whether it’s Republican or Democrat, or liberal or conservative,” Trump began. “It would be so nice if we could come together and straighten out the world and straighten out the problems and straighten out all of the death and destruction that we’re witnessing. That’s practically never been like this.”

Trump largely refrained from his usual derogatory barbs against DeSantis and Haley in his speech after months of taunting. “I want to congratulate Ron and Nikki for having a good time together,” Trump said. “We’re all having a good time together. I think they both actually did very well. I really do.”

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As the race turns to New Hampshire, where Trump still leads his competitors, Haley will face more pressure to perform well against the former president.

Independent voters make up the majority of voters in the Granite State, and if Haley can’t defeat Trump or place a close second after a third-place finish in Iowa, it will become that much harder for her to keep Trump from locking the GOP nomination down.