Donald Trump won the Iowa Republican race and scored his first major victory in the race for the White House

Donald Trump dealt a heavy electoral blow in Iowa on Monday, winning clearly in that state and positioning himself as the Republicans’ favorite candidate in the first and crucial event of the race for the White House. Thus, despite the trials against him, the former president began his new path towards the presidency of the United States with strong momentum.

The first unofficial estimates from the news indicated that the tycoon had obtained a comfortable victory (the first official calculations gave him around 55%), while his rival Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, and former governor of South Carolina and former ambassador to United Nations, Nikki Haley, was competing for second and third place.

Before the vote, Trump was largely leading the polls, but the question was why that terrible thermal sensation which dropped to 30 degrees below zero in that state in the centre-north of the country and which posed a “risk of death” for the country would have a negative impact on the outcome: going out and staying on the streets for too long.

However, as can be seen from the results, it seems that the Trumpist militants were not intimidated and participated in the meeting.

In Iowa, the first internal Republican vote, Trump went to the polls for the first time since losing the presidency in November 2020 against Democrat Joe Biden, an election he has always been unaware of and for which he is still under trial conspiracy to alter the outcome.

Iowa marks the beginning of the electoral process which will end on November 5 this year with the presidential elections, after the end of the primaries in the rest of the country. This time Trump appeared much more prepared than in the 2020 elections – when he came second behind Ted Cruz – because today his campaign is better financed and the state supports him.

As estimated by CNN on the basis of exit polls, the tycoon had been blessed by the support of the most conservative (62% of those who define themselves as “very conservative” voted for him), and of evangelical Christians (a large part of the state professes that religion) since 55% of them chose it.

Iowa Republicans voted with a very particular system, known as caucus, which many consider slow and anachronistic, but others praise as an example of direct democracy and highly representative of people’s opinion.

Party members gathered from 7 p.m. Iowa time (10 p.m. in Argentina) in schools, gyms, fire stations and other public spaces where they listened to representatives of the candidates present their ideas with speeches.

They arrived with snow boots, heavy coats, gloves and hats. At that time, in the middle of the night, the temperature was 20 degrees below zero and the wind chill, driven by strong winds, dropped to -30. Although this rural state is accustomed to inclement weather, the cold was much colder than usual and had been going on for several days.

Trump, prosecuted in four criminal cases ranging from stealing secret documents to trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat, hoped to land a first big blow in Iowa to get well positioned on the road ahead and succeeded.

With this comfortable victory, he confirmed his broad leadership and gained momentum to try to consolidate the victory internally as soon as possible before the start of the pending trials, some of which are scheduled for March.

The primaries will continue next week in New Hampshire, and then will take place in the 50 states of the Union, until June. In July there will be the Republican convention that will officially nominate the candidate.

Unlike Republicans, Iowa Democrats will instead hold caucuses and vote by mail through March. However, this process is practically settled, as President Biden aspires to a second term and has no major rivals within him. Only the writer Marianne Williamson and the Minnesota congressman Dean Phillips are fighting for the nomination.

But the shadows over his age – if Biden won he would assume the presidency at 82 – and his physical condition are a counterweight to his campaign.

National polls measuring Trump against Biden give Trump a slim one-point lead, as compiled by RealClearPolitics. The Democrat would have more problems if his rival were not the tycoon: Haley would beat Biden by 8 points and DeSantis by 3.