None of the GOP candidates got what they wanted — except for Donald Trump.
None of the GOP presidential candidates got what they wanted out of the Iowa caucuses — except for Donald Trump.
Before the caucuses, I wrote about what each candidate needed to do in Iowa to win the state’s all-important “expectations game” — the strange way this small contest can reshape the perceptions of the political world about who can win.
Ron DeSantis needed to do really well to show his campaign still had a pulse, but he ended up with a weak, distant second place.
Nikki Haley wanted a solid second-place showing but ended up in third place, with some limitations in her support base — her failure to appeal to non-college-educated Republicans — very apparent.
Vivek Ramaswamy wanted to show his campaign was for real, but he didn’t, and soon announced he was quitting the race and endorsing Trump.
As for Trump? Well, he needed a commanding win about on track with where he was polling — 50 percent — and that’s what he got.Loser: Ron DeSantis
DeSantis had a theory that he could defeat Trump with, effectively, a pincer movement. He’d peel off some voters from the right, assuring them that he’s a more solid and effective conservative than Trump. But he’d also peel off more mainstream voters with concerns over Trump’s electability, arguing his Florida record means he can and would actually win in November.
For many months, these hopes have lain in tatters, with DeSantis having declined in the polls, lost donors, and seen Haley try to supplant him as the second-place candidate.
But Iowa remained his best chance to turn this around. DeSantis made campaign visits to all 99 of the state’s counties, and won some key endorsements from elites there, like evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats and Gov. Kim Reynolds (R).
That proved to be enough — for a weak second place. As of Monday night, though counting wasn’t yet finalized, DeSantis had won about 21 percent of the vote, to 19 percent for Haley.
