The Republican 2024 presidential primary race recently kicked off with Iowa’s Republican Caucuses, solidifying former President Donald Trump‘s dominance with 51 percent of the vote, amid the GOP front-runner bouncing from the courtroom for criminal and civil cases to the campaign trail.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis finished in a distant second place there, while former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley came in third place.
According to an ABC News report, those results reaffirmed what polling has shown for a while: Many, if not all, Republican voters still favor Trump as their GOP nominee to likely face off with President Joe Biden.
Despite Trump’s win, lower turnout at the polls in Iowa prompted fears about a drop in euthanism in the former president’s campaign compared to his 2016 run for the White House. Only 15 percent of Iowa’s registered Republicans showed up for last Monday’s caucuses, according to the Hill.
“I don’t think he has the same enthusiasm he did in 2016, but I think he has plenty to become the nominee,” Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah told the outlet.
Following his struggling presidential campaign and loss to Trump in the Iowa Caucuses, DeSantis dropped out of the 2024 GOP primary race a few days before the New Hampshire primary. He announced Sunday on the same social media platform where he delivered his glitchy presidential bid while endorsing Trump.
Overall, polls forecast an uphill battle for Haley to compete with Trump throughout the 2024 primary race. DeSantis joins many other GOP candidates who have dropped out of the race, including, most recently, successful entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
Scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 23, the New Hampshire primary is the second Republican presidential nomination contest following the Iowa Caucuses, with 22 delegates at stake. Based on most polls, Trump also anticipates winning New Hampshire. And ABC News canceled a planned debate in New Hampshire after Haley said she would only participate again if Trump or Joe Biden were there.
Political experts have said Haley targets more moderate voters.
While Trump leads in most New Hampshire polls, an American Research Group poll gives Haley more hope to upset Trump, showing her trailing Trump by less than five percentage points.
The ARG poll of 600 likely GOP primary voters from Dec. 27 to Jan. 3 reveals Trump leading in New Hampshire with 37 percent, followed by Haley at 33 percent, according to Newsweek. Chris Christie ranks third at 10 percent. The margin of error is 4 points.
Virginia Tech political expert Caitlin Jewitt weighed in on the Jan. 23 Republican primary, saying, “Haley and DeSantis will need to do better than expected in New Hampshire in order to have any chance of staying in the race.”
Jewitt added: “If they don’t perform well in New Hampshire, the question will become not if, but when they withdraw from the race. Trump could become the de facto nominee because all his challengers have dropped out or once he has secured 50% of the possible delegates.”
Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur, suspended his 2024 presidential campaign after disappointing results in the Iowa Caucuses. After suspending his campaign, he officially endorsed Trump.
Meanwhile, Haley is directing her focus on New Hampshire for this week, staying within striking distance of Trump, as indicated by 538’s polling average.
On Monday, Haley officially declared the Republican primary a “two-person race,” a sentiment stated in a campaign memo sent to the press by campaign manager Betsy Ankeny.
The memo stated, “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.”
