Ted Cruz was the surprise winner in the Iowa Republican caucuses tonight edging out Donald Trump who in turn edged out Marco Rubio in a very strong voter turnout.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton is just a handful of votes ahead of socialist Bernie Sanders in a vote still too close to call. Given that Clinton was ahead of Sanders by 40 percentage points a few weeks ago, this result may raise more eyebrows than Cruz did by winning the Republican side.
Via Real Clear Politics, the delegate totals look like this.
Mike Huckabee dropped out tonight. In speeches following the caucuses, both Trump and Rubio reached out to Huckabee.
New Hampshire
Trump and Sanders are both supposed to easily win new Hampshire.
Unless Trump puts in a poor New Hampshire showing, Iowa will soon be a meaningless result. Hillary’s test comes after New Hampshire.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Odd that whatever methodologies contributed to the RCP average overestimated the “outsider” and underestimated the two insiders.
So is that the GOP play. Get Cruz to deflate Trump in Iowa before imploding himself in NH and SC, and have Rubio take Florida in Bush’s place to seal nomination for RNC insiders?
Funny how quiet the Trumpers are today. The non-blind ones probably understand the huge mistake Trump made by not showing up for the debate. It allowed establishment candidate Rubio back into the race.
Good call by Nate