By Zackary Nichols
Courier Staff Reporter
All eyes were on Iowa as the 44th annual Iowa Caucus, the first public electoral event in the 2016 presidential election season, began.
Politically active Iowans, on both the left and right, filled elementary school gyms, churches, public libraries, grain elevator basements, and even gun shops in order to help their candidates of choice win some precious delegates.
The two candidates from the Democratic and Republican Parties with the most delegates will become the presidential nominees and will face each other in the general election in November.
On the democratic side, Senator Bernie Sanders faced off against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Governor Martin O’Malley. Going into the race Secretary Clinton was expected to come out on top in a dominant fashion, but her lead diminished as the Caucus got closer. She did eventually prevail, but it was a dead heat. The final tally shows Clinton on top at 49.9% of votes, compared to Sanders 49.6 and O’Malley at 0.6. Sanders was greatly aided by the high voter turnout.
The tight race was not met without controversy with accusations of voter fraud and inaccuracies being thrown around by politicians, pundits, and voters of all sides. Many new voters were surprised that district ties are solved with a coin toss.
“I mean it definitely felt out of the ordinary,” said AP government student Jyotsna Kethepalli, “I knew that it’s something the Democrats do when there’s a tie but I mean, something like that to happen is so rare.”
The Republican side was much more cut and dry. Republicans counted a record breaking 180,000 caucus goers. Senator Ted Cruz Triumphed over Donald Trump, even though analysts said a large voter turnout would work well in Trump’s favor, 27.6% to 24.3. Senator Marco Rubio wasn’t far behind at 23.1, followed by Dr. Ben Carson at 9.3, Senator Rand Paul at 4.5, Governor Jeb Bush at 2.8, and Carly Fiorina, Governor John Kasich, Governor Mike Huckabee, Governor Chris Christie, Senator Rick Santorum, and Governor Jim Gilmore with less than 2% of the vote.
Trump initially seemed okay, even honored, to win 2nd place, but he later went on a “Twitter Tirade” demanding a recount.
Cruz celebrated by giving an extremely drawn out and “Reaganesque” victory speech that was so long, no major TV network covered it live to the end.
Sanders gave an uplifting speech, declaring a virtual tie and thanking his supporters for “sending a very profound message to the political establishment, to the economic establishment and, by the way, to the media establishment.”
Clinton did much the same, saying that she is “looking forward to debating against Bernie Sanders” and urging supporters to be “united against a Republican vision.”
The majority of Logan Students I spoke to are Bernie Sanders supporters. All of them are happy that Sander’s campaign was able to build enough traction in order to actually make winning the Democratic nomination a contest for political powerhouse Hillary Clinton.
“I’d say Sander’s, even though he technically lost, won the left that night,” said one anonymous student, “he proved that he is a real threat to Clinton and gained a lot of momentum. He has my vote, I don’t really like the other options, but if he doesn’t get the nomination, I’ll vote for Clinton.”
Jyotsna Kethepalli continued, “I’m a little surprised that Ted Cruz won. With all of the hype that Trump has been getting, I thought he would win the Republican side.”
“As a Sanders supporter, I think that the Iowa Caucus went pretty well for our side of things. I mean Bernie Sanders didn’t win but it showed that he has enough momentum to virtually tie with Clinton.” said Michael Villarta “I think that’s a powerful message being sent to America.”
Four nominees have suspended their campaigns since the Caucus: Martin O’Malley, Rand Paul, Mike Huckabee, and Rick Santorum.
The New Hampshire Primary is next on the campaign trail. It’ll begin on Tuesday, February 9th. Just like the Iowa Caucus, the winners will gain a good amount of momentum and media coverage going forward.
Going into the Primary, Sanders is currently expected to best Clinton on the Democratic side, with Trump triumphing the candidates on the right. But, just like we saw with Iowa, nothing is set in stone and everything is up to change.
