“I’m here in part out of spite. I can’t abandon him. After what they did to him in the last election, and the political persecution he faces, I feel like I owe him this.…”
-Iowa Trump caucuser Marc Smiarowski, 44-year-old public utility worker.
The Associated Press declared Trump the winner of the Iowa caucuses based on an analysis of early returns as well as results of AP VoteCast, a survey of voters who planned to caucus on Monday night. Both showed Trump with an insurmountable lead.
Initial results from eight counties showed Trump with far more than half of the total votes counted as of 8:31 pm. ET, with the rest of the field trailing far behind. These counties include rural areas that are demographically and politically similar to a large number of counties that have yet to report.
