The Republican primary has begun, and Donald Trump’s victory in the Iowa caucuses is a significant one that strengthens his relationship with party voters.
Notwithstanding his remarkable legal difficulties, which may make his ambition to retake the White House more difficult, he has succeeded.
Although the extent of Mr. Trump’s triumph is yet unknown, his followers braved a historically significant and potentially fatal cold spell to attend caucus meetings in state schools, churches, and community centers.
These are only the initial outcomes of a lengthy process that will take months for Mr. Trump to obtain the Republican nominee for a third time in a row.
The two most well-known primary opponents of Mr. Trump are Florida governor Ron DeSantis and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley.
To get some momentum going into the next races, they are hoping to place second in Iowa.
Both have already shifted their attention, with Ms. Haley preparing for a fierce contest in New Hampshire in which she wants to have greater success with the state’s independent voters before the primary on January 23.
Before coming to New Hampshire, Mr. DeSantis is traveling directly to South Carolina, a conservative bastion where the contest on February 24th could be crucial.
When it comes to predicting the Republican nominee for the general election, Iowa is not a very reliable source. The last Republican to win Iowa and go on to become the party’s standard-bearer was George W. Bush in 2000.
The majority of the last year has been devoted to Mr. Trump creating an organization in Iowa that is far more professional than the somewhat disorganized one he controlled in 2016, the year Texas senator Ted Cruz won the caucuses.
His staff focused especially on developing advanced data and digital operations to stay in touch with prospective voters and make sure they understood how to take part in the caucuses.
For months, the outgoing president claimed that a decisive win in Iowa, characterized by a 30- to 40-point margin, would mean that the remainder of the primary would be practically pointless.
In private, his staff has concentrated on matching or surpassing the roughly 13-point victory margin of Bob Dole in the 1988 Iowa Republican caucus—the greatest margin of victory ever.
