Washington, Jan 17 (IANS): America’s twice-impeached former President, who is also facing more than 90 criminal charges, kicked off his bid for the Republican party's nomination for President with a thumping victory in the first of the primaries held Monday in Iowa.
Former President Donald Trump’s convincing win in the Iowa caucuses -- 98 of the state’s 99 counties -- bore testimony to his continued dominance of the Republican party and showed it was not yet ready for someone else, such as one of his remaining rivals in the race - Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and forment Ambassador to US Nikki Haley, who came second and third respectively.
Indian American entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy’s long-shot campaign did not last the night as he announced he was dropping out of the race and endorsed Trump.
Trump called his victory a "landslide". DeSantis and Haley are both spinning their Iowa performance as proof the nomination is a two-person race between either one of them and Trump.
But, the reality is, the Republican nomination contest remains unambiguously a one-person race.
Iowa caucuses are a unique feature of the US presidential election process. The state is the first to vote in the process. But, starting this year, the first only for Republicans; Democrats have announced a parallel schedule for their primaries, kicking it off in South Carolina.
But, equally, Iowa has a reputation for backing candidates who go on to either lose the nomination or the presidential election — it voted for Ted Cruz, the Texas Senator, in 2016 over Trump, who went on to pick up the nomination and the White House.
Trump’s victory advances his claim on the nomination but does not guarantee it. Haley and DeSantis are both hoping to overtake him further down the primaries but the gap between the former President and both his rivals remains too wide.
New Hampshire is the next state in the Republicans primaries and Haley has closed it to Trump in polls and with the backing of the state's popular Governor, Chris Sununu, who has endorsed her, hopes to catch up with the former President. The state after this is South Carolina, her home state where she served as Governor for two terms.
"The race now moves to less Trump-friendly territory. And the field of candidates is effectively down to two, with only Trump and Nikki Haley having substantial support in both New Hampshire and South Carolina," the Haley campaign said in a statement on Tuesday.
"That never happened in the 2016 nominating contest, when a larger field allowed Trump to win many primaries with pluralities rather than majorities."
In a new ad, Haley projected herself as an alternative to both Trump and President Joe Biden, who is seeking a second term.
Though she trails Trump in polls on the Republican primaries race, she has a commanding lead over the President in head-to-head matches, beating him by a wider margin than Trump’s over Biden.
"The two most disliked politicians in America?,” the narrator says in the ad. “Trump and Biden. Both are consumed by chaos, negativity, and grievances of the past. The better choice for a better America? Nikki Haley."
The former President is facing 93 criminal charges and runs the risk of being disqualified from running in 2024; two states have already struck him off the list of candidates for the presidential nomination.
Both Haley and DeSantis may stay in the race in the hope of Trump being taken down by any one of these cases, but that would depend on their ability to finance their campaigns long enough in the face of Trump’s unstoppable run; donors may fade away rather than sink their money in doomed campaigns.