Trump sweeps the Iowa caucuses, according to first estimates

“It's always a great day to be a polar bear,” reads a slogan in the hallways of North High School in Des Moines, Iowa. The Polar Bears are the sports teams of this institute where a group of Republican voters have gathered to elect their candidate for the November presidential election. It's 21 degrees below zero outside. It's a good day to be a polar bear, sure, but it's also a good day to be Donald Trump. As the polls anticipated, the former president has swept the Iowa caucuses, according to first estimates.

Trump has been the candidate with the most votes in the hundreds of citizen assemblies that have demonstrated this Monday about who is their favorite to challenge Joe Biden for the White House on November 5. The victory in icy Iowa, covered in snow and subjected to Arctic temperatures, is only the first step in the primary race, but it represents a coup of authority for Trump, who is not immune to his four indictments for 91 alleged crimes. They weigh you down, but they give you wings.

Trump's victory has been resounding, based on the speed with which television and media data analysts have certified his victory, including the almost infallible AP. Apparently, he has broken the record of Bob Dole, who won the 1988 Iowa caucuses by just over 12 points and set a record at the time.

Without knowing who was Second and Third, for Ron DeSantis, the result is a complete disappointment. Televisions have been enjoying themselves in recent days with their change of message. A few months ago he said: “We are going to win in Iowa.” He a few weeks ago: “We are going to do well in Iowa.” The reality is that despite having covered all 99 counties and despite being a white, conservative and religious state, which favors his political profile, DeSantis has failed.

The caucus from Iowa They are political assemblies that were held this Monday starting at 7:00 p.m. local time (2 a.m. on Tuesday in mainland Spain), in hundreds of civic centers, schools, sports centers, churches and even private homes, throughout and width of this State of 3.2 million inhabitants. In those places, Republican voters have expressed their preferences for the candidates. In most cases there are speeches and debates, although it is not essential. In the Republican case, there is no formation of groups or elimination of candidates who do not reach a certain percentage of votes. Those were the characteristics of the caucus Iowa Democrats until 2020. Here, although those who attend tend to be more participatory and often like to express themselves and defend their ideas, the vote is secret and the differences with traditional primaries are reduced.

At the North Institute, John Satre has been in charge of defending Trump's candidacy. He tells EL PAÍS that it is the second time that he acts as captain of caucus, as those volunteers who act as spokespersons for their candidates are known. In 2016, curiously, he defended Senator Ted Cruz against Trump, but now he is dedicated to the motto of making America great again. “Trump is what the country needs, he has shown that he has common sense,” he defends without blinking. He has made his public defense of Trump with almost simultaneous translation into Spanish, although there were hardly any Latino voters in the room.

Irma Fralic, 60, from South Carolina, Nikki Haley's home state, has traveled from Pennsylvania to ask for the vote for her. “Nikki can beat Biden. Trump has a very strong base, but it is not enough. Nikki can unite the country, she is conservative, she does not want a big Government, she wants a balanced budget,” she explains to EL PAÍS. “She's the only one with her pants on properly,” she adds.

Mike Dorwart, 63, lived in Florida before moving to Iowa, which is partly why he defends Ron DeSantis. “I think he would be good for the country, he is the right person for this moment, because of his experience and everything,” he explains. “Something that unites all Republicans is the desire to defeat Joe Biden in November,” he maintains.

He caucus of the North Institute has functioned as a disorderly assembly, without a public address system, with several people intervening in parallel, protests over the delay in starting and some chaos in the voting. Just under a hundred Republicans attended. “The bad weather is noticeable,” said the organizers. In addition to the speeches in defense of Trump, Haley and DeSantis, the candidacies of Vivek Ramaswamy and Asa Hutchinson have also been defended. The news that Trump had swept Iowa reached the high school assembly hall before they had even started voting. Paradoxes of democracy broadcast live.

Democrats have relegated caucus of Iowa after the botched 2020 count, which was delayed for days and was never completely reliable. President Joe Biden, who had a dismal result in this state four years ago, pushed for the first votes to be cast in more diverse states that better represented his party and the country. Iowa Democrats accepted that their votes be by mail and that they will not be completed and published until March. This Monday they met to discuss party business, but not to vote.

Officially, that party's primary process begins in South Carolina on February 3, and then moves to Nevada. However, the New Hampshire Democratic Party is moving forward with a Jan. 23 primary that the party's national apparatus says will be invalid.

[Noticia de última hora. Habrá ampliación en breve]

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