The Iowa Caucus is the first primary in the U.S. presidential election. The results, in both Republican, and Democratic parties came as quite a shock to quite a few news sources, most notably NY Times, and NPR.
On the Republican side, Donald Trump’s ‘victory’, as he might call it, or lack thereof as many previous polls had predicted was his 2nd place. Trump held a press conference after a rally on the night of 2/2/2016, less than a day after results were releases.
Trump tweeted, “Because I was told I could not do well in Iowa, I spent very little there – a fraction of Cruz & Rubio. Came in a strong second.”
Senator Ted Cruz won by 4 points. In 3rd place, and not by very much-only 4 points behind was Senator Marco Rubio. Rubio’s mainstream Republican politics account for his strong finish in Iowa.
On the Democratic side, Senator Hillary Clinton won by less than 1 point over Senator Bernie Sanders. Governor Martin O’Malley dropped out of the race, after receiving less than 1 percent of the vote.
O’Malley said in his dropping out speech, ““Look, gang. In conclusion, there is no conclusion.”
The fact that Iowa results were so close led to Sanders heralding his close 2nd as a victory. Despite being in different parties, both Trump and Sanders, celebrated not accepted their defeats as victories.
In an email to his supporters, Sanders said, “How close was the Iowa caucus last night? In several precincts, they had to flip a coin.”