Against all expectations, billionaire and Republican presidential
candidate, Donald Trump, lost the Iowa Caucus, the first primary votes in
America’s 2016 general elections, Monday, February 1.
It was a humiliating defeat for Mr.
Trump who announced his candidacy for President of the United States last June
16, and was widely expected to win, being a clear leader in all the polls
conducted before the primaries, including poll results released 24 hours before
Iowans cast their votes.
Iconoclastic Senator Ted Cruz of
Texas, supported by a wave of extreme right wing evangelical Christians, led
the assault that crumbled Donald Trump’s presumed invisibility. Senator Cruz
won by 27.7 per cent of caucus votes, while Mr. Trump had 24.3 per cent and
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida came third with 23.1 per cent of the votes.
Mr. Cruz’s victory was more than a
personal victory. Aside from surviving the nasty flames thrown at him by Mr.
Trump who characterised him as unelectable because we was born in Canada, the
governor of Iowa, Terry E. Branstad, and many Republican leaders in Washington
strongly cautioned against voting for him because they said he was too much of
an extremist that could hurt the party’s chances in the general elections in November.
Meanwhile, on the Democratic Party
end of the divide, the results were a virtual tie between former Secretary of
State, Hillary Clinton, and Senator Bernie Sanders of the State of Vermont.
With 99 per cent votes count, Mrs. Clinton had 49.9 per cent of the votes to
49.6 per cent of the votes for Senator Sanders. Former Maryland State governor,
Martin O’Malley returned a dismal showing by winning 0.6 per cent of the total
votes and promptly announced his withdrawal from the presidential race.
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