The 2024 American presidential primary season began yesterday in the state of Iowa with Former US President Donald Trump scoring a record-setting win in the Iowa Republican caucuses.
The Republican and Democratic parties choose their presidential nominee through caucuses and primaries. While the majority of US states conduct primaries, certain traditional Republican strongholds, such as Iowa, hold caucuses—more like town halls–to elect delegates. The delegates elected in caucuses and primaries vote at the national convention held later in the year for the party’s presidential nominee.
In Iowa, with 99% of the predicted vote having been counted, Trump received 51%, Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis 21%, and former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley 19%.
Having received more than half of the Republican vote, Trump now has a better chance of securing his place in subsequent primaries to become the Republican party nominee to face the Democratic candidate and expected nominee, incumbent President Joe Biden, in what may be a close and intensely contentious presidential election in November.
The Republican Party (known as the Grand Old Party or GOP) primaries now shift to New Hampshire, which will conduct the first-in-the-nation primary on January 23. Conservative entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy suspended his presidential candidacy after finishing fourth in Iowa and, despite Trump’s attacks on him, endorsed Trump, leaving a dwindling Republican field of contenders.
The former president, who is facing 91 felony counts across four criminal cases that will likely be going to trial in the coming months, will be juggling campaigning and court appearances right up until the election. He is scheduled to appear in court in New York on Tuesday before flying to New Hampshire for a rally on Tuesday evening.
While winning the state does not ensure becoming the nominee, it has tended to serve as a litmus test for the candidate who receives the nomination in the July 2024 Republican convention, which is when the delegates votes are tallied and the party nominee is announced.
If Trump is the Republican nominee and is convicted of federal or state crimes, this will be the first time in US history that a convicted felon has run for President. Efforts are already being made to disqualify him from the ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution as having led an insurrection on January 6, 2021.
Since inception of the Iowa caucuses in 1972, only three presidential candidates who triumphed in the Iowa caucuses have ascended to the presidency: Democrats Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Barack Obama in 2008, and Republican George W. Bush in 2000.