The Iowa caucus was the first test in this year’s Republican primary race. The campaign just started so it’s way too early to call.
On the other hand, you’d have to be blind not to see that former President Donald Trump — who won the caucus by almost 30 points — got a big jump out of the gates Monday.
In second place in Iowa was Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who outperformed polling to claim 21.1 percent of the vote compared with 51 percent for Trump.
That’s why it raised more than a few eyebrows when former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who came in third with just over 19 percent of the vote, claimed the GOP race was now between her and Trump.
“I can safely say tonight Iowa made this Republican primary a two-person race,” Haley said after the caucus results were in, speaking to her supporters at her Iowa campaign headquarters at the Marriott Hotel in West Des Moines.
She claimed that she is in the best position to take on Trump as the primary moves on to New Hampshire next week.
“Seventy percent percent of Americans don’t want another Trump-Biden rematch,” Haley said, referring to President Joe Biden and the 2020 election. “A majority disapprove of both of them.
“Trump and Biden are both about 80 years old, yet Trump and Biden both put our country trillions of dollars deeper in debt, and our kids will never forgive them for it.”
Would you vote for Nikki Haley?
“Trump and Biden both lack a vision for our country’s future because both are consumed by the past, by investigations, by vendettas, by grievances. America deserves better,” she declared.
Is Haley’s strategy to conflate Trump with Biden in a magic act that will make them both disappear so she is left alone on the stage? Magic indeed.
Hope springs eternal, especially when you’re wearing a pair of rose-colored glasses that magnify the positive while blurring the negative.
However, the fact is that Haley came in third in Iowa. If the results made it a two-person race, it would be between Trump and DeSantis — as many on social media pointed out.
“I can safely say, tonight Iowa made this Republican primary a two-person race.” — Nikki Haley, who came in third place. Does she realize she came in third yet? Has someone called her up to let her know? pic.twitter.com/HxkWaNzai8
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) January 16, 2024
What is she talking about ? She came in 3rd.
— Presyvreal2.0 (@Presyvreal20) January 16, 2024
Nikki Haley: “Tonight, Iowa made this Republican primary a two person race!”
She’s so delusional! 🥜🤪🥜 pic.twitter.com/Pq1qwlQA0L
— Emergent Perspective (@_emergent_) January 16, 2024
Soooo Trump and DeSantis??? What exactly is she saying?
— ✨️Myka✨️ (@mykamoore) January 16, 2024
Haley’s “Iowa made this a two-person race” is not exactly the best message to come from a candidate who placed third https://t.co/viWTfmJEsO
— Rob Cohen (@Rob_Coh) January 16, 2024
Lady, you came in 3rd. 😂
— David Giglio (@DavidGiglioCA) January 16, 2024
Conservative commentator Ben Johnson said Haley “pulled off a Hillary Clinton-like gaffe: She assumed a second-place finish, and her speechwriters didn’t update her message based on the results.”
Nikki Haley pulled off a Hillary Clinton-like gaffe: She assumed a second-place finish, and her speechwriters didn’t update her message based on the results.
— Rev. Ben Johnson (@TheRightsWriter) January 16, 2024
The Iowa caucus is not a do-or-die for presidential hopefuls. Since 2000, only two Republicans who won Iowa became the eventual nominee. Finishing third there isn’t the end of the world for a campaign.
But a third-place finish isn’t anything to celebrate, either.
