DES MOINES, Iowa — After former President Donald Trump‘s landslide win Monday in Iowa, his allies say the race is over and the remaining candidates must drop out now to consolidate Republican support.
Trump won 51% percent of the vote in the opening nominating contest, a massive win over Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) with 21% support and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley at 19%. His 30-point victory smashed the previous 13-point margin set by former Sen. Bob Dole’s win in Iowa in 1988 and already forced two competitors to the exits.
“I think all of them should drop out,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), a top surrogate for the Trump campaign, in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “What is the reasonable path for any person to win this nomination other than Donald Trump? There isn’t one.”
Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI), who was also on hand at Trump’s victory party Monday night, said the sooner opponents of the former president coalesce around his candidacy, the better.
“It’s time to unify the Republican Party and move forward with a common goal; that’s how to get America back, and the way you do that is you coalesce around a candidate, and it’s going to be Donald Trump,” the congressman said in an interview with the Washington Examiner.
After clinching the victory during a historic chill Monday and lower turnout, Trump sounded a tone of inevitability. “I really think this is time now for everybody, our country, to come together,” Trump told the crowd.
House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) was more direct in urging Trump’s rivals to get out now.
“I am calling on every other candidate, all of whom have no chance to win, to drop out so we can unify and immediately rally behind President Trump so that we can focus 100% of our resources on defeating Joe Biden to save America,” Stefanik said after the win.
Haley responded directly to Stefanik’s comments during an appearance on Fox News on Tuesday morning, saying, “70% of Americans don’t want to see a Trump-Biden rematch.”
“The majority of Americans disapprove of both Trump and Biden,” Haley said. “You look at the fact that they are so focused on the past, whether it’s investigations, whether it’s grievances, we need a new generational conservative leader.”
In the aftermath, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who came in a distant fourth, dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump, while former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson exited the following day.
Trump was declared the winner by media outlets in Iowa just 30 minutes after the caucuses began. Only a handful of votes were even tabulated, but the overwhelming response in support of Trump from entrance interviews was enough for the Associated Press to make the call before some sites began voting.
As Florida first lady Casey DeSantis was giving her speech at Pella High School, caucusgoers began receiving push notifications from news outlets that found the contest had already been called for Trump, according to sources familiar.
Kari Lake, a top Trump surrogate, was also at the high school to speak in favor of the former president and had a “nice” conversation with DeSantis afterward.
“I hope they go back where they are loved in Florida, do that job that the Floridians are expecting of them, and then come back later,” Lake relayed to reporters later at the Iowa Events Center. “The people of Iowa told him tonight it’s not his time.”
So far, Ron DeSantis also isn’t showing signs he plans to reverse course and drop out.
“They threw everything but the kitchen sink at us,” Ron DeSantis told a crowd Monday from his caucus watch party at the Sheraton West Des Moines. “They spent almost $50 million attacking us. … The media was against us — they were writing our obituary months ago. They even called the election before people even got a chance to vote.”
“Because of your support, in spite of all of that they threw at us, everyone against us, we’ve got our ticket punched out of Iowa,” he said.
The Florida governor held events in South Carolina on Tuesday before heading to New Hampshire. Haley also already began campaigning at an event in northern New Hampshire on Tuesday morning.
“It’s a marathon. It’s not a sprint. But we couldn’t be more excited about the energy we have on the ground here in New Hampshire,” Haley said Tuesday morning after arriving in the Granite State.
Donald Trump Jr. raised concerns about consultants and donors working for opponents challenging his father for the GOP nomination, dragging out the primary instead of consolidating support and focusing efforts to beat Biden.
“They are going to try to drag out that game, the consultants that are making a lot of money from the billionaire donors that are funding Nikki Haley and others. They want to drag the primary out because once their candidate is out, they stop making money,” Trump Jr. said in an interview with the Washington Examiner on Monday night. “There’s millions and millions for these clowns to suck from the American public, which will make it harder to then beat Joe Biden than the Democrats who are unified and always well funded.”
Both voters and political operatives who support either Ron DeSantis or Haley said now is not the time to throw in the towel.
This past week, Rob Corry, a voter in Grimes, urged Ron DeSantis to continue on past Iowa.
“You need to stay in this through the convention,” Corry said to the Florida governor toward the end of a campaign event there. “Because the first person might be in jail, and Iowa is not the end-all, be-all. I’m an Iowan. I love Iowa. But, people win Iowa and do not become president, and people lose Iowa and become president.”
Will Rogers, the former Polk County GOP chairman who caucused in support of Haley on Monday, echoed a similar message, emphasizing there’s a lot of uncertainty that comes with nominating Trump in 2024.
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“There’s a lot of question marks — what’s going to go on legally with former President Trump,” Rogers questioned. “He could be declared ineligible to be our party nominee in June. If that’s the case, then we have to have clearly vetted other people to be our party nominee if that situation arises.”
“It’s unfortunate, that cloud hangs over him, but that’s largely self-inflicted as well,” Rogers said.
