Donald Trump Wins the Iowa GOP Caucuses – The New York Times
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The possibility of a two-person race remains elusive for Trump foes, who fear a split field will ease his path to the nomination.
Reporting from Des Moines
Donald J. Trump won the Iowa caucuses in a landslide on Monday, a crucial first step in his bid to claim the Republican nomination in a third consecutive election as voters looked past his mounting legal jeopardy and embraced his vision of vengeful disruption.
Mr. Trump’s record-breaking triumph, called by The Associated Press on Monday night only 31 minutes after the caucuses had begun, gave the former president an important win in a state that had rejected him eight years ago.
But on a bitter cold night, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida finished in a distant second place, according to The A.P. His narrow edge over Nikki Haley in a state where he had increasingly banked his candidacy could provide him some much-needed money and momentum in the battle for the mantle of Mr. Trump’s chief rival.
With Mr. Trump far ahead in most polls, much of the focus heading into the caucuses had been on the race for second, as Mr. DeSantis and Ms. Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations, spent as much time and money attacking each other as they did the front-runner. With Mr. DeSantis finishing ahead of Ms. Haley in Iowa, and her leading him in New Hampshire, the possibility of a two-person race remains elusive for foes of Mr. Trump, who fear a split field will ease his path to the nomination.
Even before the Iowa results were in, Mr. DeSantis had symbolically decided to fly directly to South Carolina after Iowa instead of to New Hampshire, which votes on Jan. 23 and where Ms. Haley is making her next stand.
Mr. Trump is the first former president in the modern era who has sought to return to the White House. On Monday, he easily exceeded the Republican record of 13 percentage points for the largest victory ever in a contested caucus. He was close to winning an outright majority of more than 50 percent, a critical psychological barrier for those in the party still hoping to stop him.
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