By admin 
Former Republican President Donald Trump has cruised to victory in Iowa again, earning his third presidential victory in the Hawkeye State — this time over Vice President Kamala Harris.
In the end it wasn’t close.
The Associated Press called the race around 9:40 p.m. According to partial results released by the Iowa Secretary of State, Trump led Harris 56% to 43% with 94% of the vote.
Republicans showed another strong performance across the state. Legislative leaders said they believed they were on the right track to growing their majorities.
And Republicans were defending at least three of their four congressional seats. The latter, in which Democrat Christina Bohannan challenges Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks in the 1st District, was too close as of 12:30 pm on Wednesdayeven as Miller-Meeks declared victory.
Republicans, many wearing red blazers or dresses, cheered on their candidates Tuesday night from the Iowa GOP viewing party at the Hilton Downtown Des Moines.
Fox News’ election night broadcast showed results from across the country, and cheers rang through the room as the channel called a series of states for the former president — including Iowa.
Across town, the Grand Ballroom of the historic Fort Des Moines hotel, where Democrats gathered for the election night watch party, hummed with nervous excitement just as polls closed in Des Moines. A few hundred Democrats, some still wearing rain from a final knock on the door, noshed on pulled pork sliders and mini beef boots.
But by 10:30 p.m., just under an hour after Iowa called for Trump, the event was all but over. Most of the high-top banquet tables were piled high with discarded drinks, and only a few dozen people remained camped out in front of a giant screen showing CNN.
Party leaders left unceremoniously. Rita Hart, chair of the Iowa Democratic Party, did not address spectators or answer questions from reporters after the race was called for Trump.
“Votes are still being counted, so it’s just too close,” said party spokesperson Paige Godden. “The numbers are too close.”
She said party leaders would look at the final voting results and determine a plan for the coming days.
‘It started here in Iowa’: Iowa Republican Party takes credit for Trump’s success
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird has credited Iowa with starting former President Donald Trump on the path to victory thanks to his landslide victory in the Iowa Caucuses in January.
“We’re so excited about what’s happening all over this country,” she said at the GOP watch party in Iowa. “And we won’t let anyone forget that it started right here in Iowa.”
Bird said that about Trump 30 percentage point gain in the January caucuses puts him on the road to success.
“We’re going to take some credit here in Iowa for the Iowa Caucuses, aren’t we?” she said. “Because President Trump won an unprecedented victory in the Iowa Caucasus. He won them bigger than anyone ever had, and that put him back in the White House, right where we need him.
Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig praised Governor Kim Reynolds and Republicans in the Iowa Legislature for working together as a team to deliver GOP victories in Iowa.
“I’ve been saying it all fall: Aren’t you glad you live in the state of Iowa?” he said as the crowd cheered.
Naig said the 2024 elections were about “fundamentals” such as border security, fighting inflation, energy security and food and agricultural security.
“The Democrats want to reshape our country,” he said. “Republicans want to save our country. We want to keep our country. And I want to thank you for what you’ve done to make sure we showcase more of those Iowa values in the courthouse, the statehouse and Washington, DC.”
Republicans say the big Iowa Poll miss energized voters
Republicans and Democrats watched the presidential elections in Iowa with renewed interest on Tuesday a new Des Moines Register Iowa poll showed Vice President Kamala Harris leading former President Donald Trump by 3 percentage points.
Neither Republicans nor Democrats had viewed the state as competitive in the months leading up to Election Day. And Iowa saw no campaigning from either candidate ahead of Election Day this year — a marked departure from previous cycles — as the candidates instead focused their attention on key battleground states.
But the new poll, which showed Harris with a 47% to 44% lead over Trump among likely voters, briefly thrust Iowa back into the national spotlight in the final days of the campaign.
Still, Iowa Republicans — who won a strong number of early votes and outpaced Democrats — remained voter registration numbers — remained confident they will hand the Hawkeye State to Trump when voting ends Tuesday night.
Many analysts also agreed heading into election night that Iowa would likely still favor Trump at last count.
Ultimately, they were proven right, with Republicans eagerly touting Trump’s victory and slamming the polls.
‘Ann Selzer is wrong! The Des Moines Register is Wrong! Donald Trump just won Iowa!” State Party Chairman Jeff Kaufmann shouted at the Republican Party.
He said the poll results energized Republicans.
“Let me tell you something, I knew the Selzer poll was going to try to switch some people up and take some air out of our tires,” he said. “You know what happened after we saw the Selzer poll and the Des Moines Register’s sham? We became even more excited!”
The evening was a rare miss for the Iowa Poll, which is conducted by pollster J. Ann Selzer of Selzer & Co.
The Iowa Poll has long been considered the gold standard. From 2008 to 2020, the poll accurately predicted the winner of the presidential race in Iowa. In 2004, the last Iowa poll showed Democrat John Kerry leading Republican George Bush by 5 percentage points, but Bush won Iowa by less than 1 percentage point.
Selzer said she planned to look at the data to see where the poll went wrong.
“I will be reviewing data from multiple sources in hopes of determining why that happened,” she said in a statement Tuesday evening. “And I’m happy with what this process can teach me.”
Iowa Democrats hoped Kamala Harris could stoke enthusiasm
Trump had easily won Iowa twice before, beating Democrats Hillary Clinton by 9.4 percentage points in 2016 and Joe Biden by 8.2 percentage points in 2020.
But Democrats hoped Harris could help turn the tide.
Democratic enthusiasm began to bubble over in the summer after Biden announced he would not seek another term and endorsed Harris, his vice president, for the presidential nomination.
Iowa Democrats quickly embraced Harris, voted unanimously to endorse her as the party’s candidate and supporting her at the party’s national convention in Chicago.
The Register’s Iowa Poll found that the presidential race in Iowa narrowed significantly after Harris was nominated.
In an Iowa poll in June, when Biden was the expected nominee, Trump led by 18 percentage points, 50% to 32%.
In September, after Harris became the nominee, the poll showed the battle was much smaller: Trump led by just 4 percentage points, 47% to 43%.
But Iowa has just six votes in the Electoral College, making it a small prize for either candidate as they focus on gaining the 270 electoral votes needed to capture the White House.
Instead, both Trump and Harris are hyper-focused on seven battleground states: Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia – each of which was decided by less than 3 percentage points in 2020.
Kaufmann said on a recent episode of Iowa PBS’ “Iowa Press” that the state party has had to function without help from national Republicans this election cycle.
“We are very happy to do what we need to do without the resources of the RNC and without the resources of the Trump campaign,” he said. “And I’m happy to do that, because he needs those resources in those seven swing states. I feel very comfortable with the president. We see that he has tails in many of our legislative races. So we are comfortable now.”
On another episode of “Iowa Press,” Hart told reporters that even as national campaigns focused on other states, Iowa Democrats noticed the change in momentum that came with the addition of Harris to the ticket.
“You know what, it’s not lost on us here in Iowa,” she said. “That’s why we’re focusing so hard on Democratic voter turnout and making sure we educate people about what’s at stake here and what our candidates have to offer.”
(This story has been updated to accurately reflect the most current information.)
Brianne Pfannenstiel is the Des Moines Register’s chief politics reporter. She also covers the 2024 presidential race for USA TODAY as a senior national campaign correspondent. Reach her at [email protected] or 515-284-8244. Follow her on Twitter at @brianneDMR.
Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.
Iowa Register columnist Courtney Crowder traverses the state’s 99 counties telling the stories of Iowans. Reach her out [email protected] or 515-284-8360.