Former President Donald Trump cruised to victory in the Iowa caucuses Monday, serving as a likely harbinger of what is to come in subsequent nominating contests.
CNN and the Associated Press called the caucuses for Trump just 30 minutes into the nominating process, with less than one percent of the vote reporting. The 45th president had garnered 64.5 percent of the vote, with one percent reporting as of 8:42 p.m., according to the New York Times’ election results. He was beating his nearest opponent, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), by roughly 40 percentage points.
With the contest being called so early, the question remains just how big of a victory Trump will pull off, and if polling trends and the current results are indicative of anything, he is headed for historic territory.
If he eclipses a 12.8 percent margin of victory, he will reportedly have the largest margin of victory ever in a contested Republican Iowa primary, Reuters noted, citing the Trump campaign. Late Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-KS) enjoyed the record 12.8 percent margin of victory in 1988 over televangelist Pat Robertson.
The results, as they currently stand, show Trump overperforming the latest polling trends, including in the RealClearPolling average, where Trump landed at 52.5 percent as of Monday, 33.7 percentage points ahead of former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC) at 18.8 percent. It also showed DeSantis at 15.7 and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy at 6.8 percent.
The trend spells trouble for Haley and DeSantis and, for the moment, corroborates months of polls showing them well behind the 45th president.
Iowa has 40 delegates, which will be divided by the candidates’ statewide vote share, as NBC News noted.