The race for the 2024 US presidential elections began on Monday with the Republican caucus in Iowa.
The former US President Donald Trump easily won the caucus ballots and will now head to next week’s New Hampshire primary with a commanding lead over his opponents.
Trump also received an endorsement from opponent Vivek Ramaswamy, who dropped his campaign after a disappointing loss.
Primaries and caucuses are how Republicans and Democrats select their presidential candidates. The majority of US states hold primaries, but some traditional Republican states, such as Iowa, hold caucuses to elect delegates.
Delegates elected in primaries and caucuses vote at their respective party conventions to nominate the party candidate. The Republican National Convention will be held in July.
With 51 per cent of the vote, Trump cemented his status as the Republican Party’s frontrunner.
Trump is likely to have received strong support from key voting blocs in the caucus, specifically white evangelicals and very conservative voters.
His margin was the largest ever in an Iowa caucus, surpassing Bob Dole’s record of 12.8 percentage points set in 1988.
His victory comes despite mounting legal challenges, including charges of conspiracy to overturn the 2020 US election.
According to provisional tallies, Trump received at least 20 of 40 delegates, while his nearest challenger, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, received eight, followed by Nikki Haley with seven.
DeSantis received more than 21% of the vote, with Haley coming in close behind with about 21%. Ramaswamy got only approximately 8 per cent of the votes and gained three delegates.
Following his underwhelming finish, entrepreneur Ramaswamy announced the end of his presidential campaign. He endorsed Trump, whom he had previously referred to as the “best president of the 21st century.”
Ramaswamy, a political outsider, ran a campaign similar to Trump’s, with attention-grabbing statements, unconventional policy proposals, and criticism of his opponents.
“I’m more similar to Trump in 2015 than Trump today is to Trump in 2015,” Ramaswamy said in an interview with British podcast host Russell Brand, in August 2023.