It’s quite funny to think that a state as small and, quite frankly, irrelevant as Iowa is one of the most important states in politics, as this is the first leap into the process of electing our future President. Not only is Iowa the first state to hold a vote, but it’s also a huge indicator of who will be in the White House in a year; since 1972, the caucus has had a 43% success rate at predicting which Democrat will be president and a 50% success rate for the Republican party.
The Caucus provided a lot of insight for politicians and those following the race to presidency alike, with Ted Cruz (R) and Hillary Clinton (D) coming out as winners for their respective parties. After the hour of voting, the votes were electronically sent to the Democratic and Republican headquarters, and for the hours to follow, American refreshed CNN, Fox News, and Google to continuously get updated results.
Ted Cruz’s lead was immediate, yet surprising to many. For the past few months, despite being considered a laughing stock by a majority of American youth, the controversial Donald Trump’s numbers in polls began to shockingly rise, to the point where Trump trumped Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, and even Iowa Caucus victor Ted Cruz in the Republican polls by drastic percentages.
Despite this enormous confidence booster, Trump was still down by 3% when all was said and done, but he masked this disappointment in typical Trump fashion by cracking a joke. “You know what, Iowa, I love you people, I might buy a farm here,” said the businessman – NOT the politician – during his closing statements.
On the other end of the spectrum – the blue end, to be specific – the race was much more of a nail-biter. Democratic frontrunner Clinton hoped to start fresh with Iowa and crush her two opponents, despite the controversies that have surrounded the candidate since she announced she was running for President (if you don’t know what I’m referring to, a Google search or two should do the trick).
Although the results did work out in her favor, the gap between her and Sanders was too close for comfort for the former Secretary of State.
Sanders’ high percentage shocked Democrats and Republicans across the nation, who, despite his popularity amongst voters 18-30 and the middle-class, has been slammed by opposers for his socialistic viewpoints, and as result, hasn’t been close with Clinton in terms of polls. But, considering this very age group was a driving force behind Obama’s election and reelection, Sanders is not one to rule out just yet.
Whether or not you care about politics, it’s important to be well-versed and know a bit about politics, specifically the Iowa Caucus, as it’s a key indicator of who will lead our country.
