“Tonight was a victory for the grass roots,” Cruz told The Associated Press as he was being driven from the airport to his party at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. “It was a victory for courageous conservatives in Iowa and all around the country.”
He called it a rebuke against “Washington deals run amok” and credited what he said was the uniting of the “Reagan coalition” of evangelicals and blue-collar conservatives behind him.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who has focused his efforts on the more moderate New Hampshire, meanwhile, had 2 percent of the vote – he was ahead of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, New Jersey Gov. Chis Christie and former Sen. Rick Santorum.
Trump remained defiant despite his second place finish.
“We will go on to get the Republican nomination and we will go on to easily beat Hillary or Bernie or whatever the hell they throw up there,” Trump told supporters.
On the Democratic side, Clinton and Sanders were tied at 50 percent with 94 percent of the vote in, but Clinton appeared to declare victory.
Clinton says she’s excited for the campaign debate ahead with Sanders now that they’re the only two candidates left in the Democratic presidential primary. Democratic Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and Republican Mike Huckabee both dropped out of their races Monday.
Clinton told supporters that she’s breathing a big sigh of relief. She says Democrats have a clear idea about what their campaign stands for and what’s best for the country.
For her supporters, the exceedingly tight race with Sanders was sure to bring back painful memories of her loss to Barack Obama in 2008. Her campaign spent nearly a year building a massive get-out-the-vote operation in Iowa yet still seemed to be caught off guard by the enthusiasm surrounding Sanders.
Sanders did not speak before presstime.
A self-declared democratic socialist from Vermont, Sanders drew large, youthful crowds across the state with his calls for breaking up big Wall Street banks and his fierce opposition to a campaign finance system that he says is rigged for the wealthy.
The contentious and surprisingly close campaign on both sides inundated Iowans with TV commercials, campaign appearances and mailers in recent days.
But the effort bore results: with voter packing precincts to argue for the candidate they had chosen.
Iowa votes
In Johnston, Iowa, just north of Des Moines, Republicans began their caucus with a series of speeches from people around the community.
Ohio Auditor Dave Yost spoke for Kasich, arguing that Kasich had the experience to deal with the two biggest threats to the United States: ISIS and Washington spending. “I used to tell juries when I was a prosecuting attorney, don’t listen to what they say, look at what they do, because the truth is sometimes in the words, but the truth is always in the actions. This is about saving America and John Kasich can do it.”
That precinct turned out to buck the trend: Rubio won, with 81 votes, followed by Cruz, Trump and Carson, respectively. Kasich came in fifth - he had 17 votes, which thrilled Yost. “That was a stronger than expected finish,” he said.
Just down the hall, long lines stretched down the hall of Johnston Middle School as Democrats lined up to vote.
Mike Cox, 54, an IT contractor from Johnston, brought his daughter Bria, who’d convinced him to vote in his first caucus. They were backing Sanders.
“A big part of this is I’m really tired of us throwing people in the Middle East, throwing us into wars we don’t need to be in,” he said.
Later, the gym lined up into three camps – a large camp for Sanders, another for Clinton and a smaller group for O’Malley. The group was counted – 296 Democrats in all – and divided into groups. Neighbors were allowed to argue for other neighbors to come support the other groups.
“Are we still standing with her?” one lady shouted.
When one voter left O’Malley’s camp to wander across the gym to the Sanders camp, the crowd applauded. Later, they chanted “Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!” The Hillary supporters chanted “Hillary! Hillary! Hillary!” It was not unlike a pep rally, except with far more peer pressure.
In the end, Clinton edged Sanders narrowly, 142-131. She’ll get five delegates from that precinct to Sanders’ 4.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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