Category Iowa

Jan 16 2024

Vivek Ramaswamy Suspends Campaign and Endorses President Donald Trump


Posted originally on the CTH on January 15, 2024 | Sundance 

Vivek Ramaswamy Suspends Campaign and Endorses President Donald Trump

January 15, 2024 | Sundance | 331 Comments

Following a disappointing 4th place finish in Iowa, presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy announced he was suspending his campaign for the presidency and has endorsed President Donald Trump. WATCH:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=kzA_LAzybgQ%3Ffeature%3Doembed

.

(Des Moines) – “There’s no path for me to be the next president, absent things we don’t want to see happen in this country,” he said in a speech announcing that he was suspending his campaign after coming in 4th place in the Iowa Caucuses.

Ramaswamy said the next president must be an “America First” president. He said he would throw his support behind former President Donald Trump.

As he announced he was ending his bid, Ramaswamy had 8,093 votes, or 7.7%, in the Republican caucuses with 91% of votes reporting. (MORE)

Jan 16 2024

VOTE 2024 – Iowa Caucus Results and Election Discussion Thread


Posted originally on the CTH on January 15, 2024 | Sundance

As we will do with each primary contest, this is the dedicated thread to the results from the primary caucus in the state of Iowa today.

Forty delegates are up for grabs. Delegates are distributed ¹proportionately.  Caucusing begins at 8:00pm ET. We can expect results from the first-reporting precinct caucuses around 8:45pm Eastern Time tonight.

There is no Democrat primary caucus in Iowa this year as the DNC changed the primary contest. A few people, me included, have long suspected the DNC primary change was not necessarily about the DNC, but rather a change to provide space for Iowa and New Hampshire Democrat activists to influence the first two republican primaries as a block Trump strategy. We await the data to see what happens.

Associated Press Election Results Here

Politico Election Results Here

New York Times Election Results Here

CNN Election Results Here

¹Delegates are proportionally allocated to Presidential contenders based on the statewide vote. Each candidate receives (candidate’s statewide vote) × 40 ÷ (total statewide vote) delegates. Round fractions to the nearest whole number. If there are too few delegates allocated, the candidate nearest the rounding threshold receives the additional delegate. If too many delegates are allocated, the candidate furthest the threshold loses a delegate.

Dec 12 2023

President Trump Widens Lead in Latest Iowa Poll, Now Exceeding 51%


Posted originally on the CTH on December 11, 2023 | Sundance

Despite Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley spending massive amounts of time and resources in Iowa, President Trump is pulling away according to the latest polling.

[SOURCE]

IOWA – Donald Trump’s support now tops 50% in Iowa, where the former president has strengthened his already overwhelming lead over Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis — neither of whom has fully broken away as the clear second choice.  

[…] DeSantis, who was tied with Haley at 16% in October, has gained 3 percentage points to pull away from her in second place with 19%.

Haley had seen a burst of momentum in Iowa between August and October, growing her share of support from 6% to 16% following well-received debate performances. In recent weeks, she has snagged a major endorsement from Americans For Prosperity Action, part of the Koch political network, and has amassed support from major donors looking for an alternative to Trump.  

But those efforts have not resulted in a bump in the latest Iowa Poll, and she remains flat at 16% — even as other candidates have dropped out.  (read more)

For those who follow inside politics closely, you will notice the Rupert Murdoch operation has switched from DeSantis to Haley.

Murdoch outlet The Wall Street Journal is now pushing Nikki Haley as the next best candidate to stop Trump and defeat Biden.   This was/is all very predictable.

[…] “While the poll finds Trump with a dominating lead in the Republican primary, with nearly 60% support, it suggests that Nikki Haley would be the stronger general-election candidate. Haley, a former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador, tops Biden in a test match-up by 17 points, 51% to 34%, compared with Trump’s four-point lead.

Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, ties Biden at 45% each. DeSantis had led Biden by 3 points in a Journal survey in April. (more)

It was always going to be Nikki despite the full-throated first wave of support for Ron.  Why was this prediction below so transparently obvious?  Simply, because DeSantis sucks as a candidate and at a certain point the management cannot overcome the candidate weakness.  The principal has to stand alone, and Ron DeSantis is not the guy to be able to handle that responsibility; he’s just too weak and controlled.

So yeah, it was always going to be Nikki as the hopeful GOPe nominee to block Trump.  CHECK DATE:

[SOURCE]

Nikki Haley is Mitt Romney in a skirt. 

Dec 9 2023

Casey Just Torpedoed Ron’s Iowa Effort – Casey DeSantis Asks Voters from Every State to Descend on Iowa and Support Her Husband


Posted originally on the CTH on December 8, 2023 | Sundance

What she is saying is illegal, and desperation makes desperate people say desperate things.  During a Fox News interview, the Florida governor’s wife, Casey DeSantis asks voters from all over America to descend on Iowa and caucus in support of Ron.  Casey remarks, “You do not have to be a resident of Iowa to be able to participate in the Caucus.”

You cannot legally caucus vote for a candidate in Iowa without being an Iowa resident. [SEE RULES HERE] Notice how Ron just sits there and lets Casey say something that is transparently false.  However, perhaps this is the agenda of the professional Republican apparatus in the state – to permit caucus voting by non-Iowa residents. Martha MacCallum just sits there like a potted plant on behalf of Fox News. Unreal.  WATCH:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=QLrcAlnOpgk%3Ffeature%3Doembed

Side note:  Notice the shiny new cross around the neck for this interview.  The adornment is intended to emphasize the alignment for evangelical support.  It is exactly, I mean EXACTLY, the same Iowa play, the Bob Vander Plaats agenda, rolled out in 2016 by the Cruz Crew and Glenn Beck.  History is repeating.

Knowing the background of deception, astroturf, fraud and manipulation that underpins the entire DeSantis operation, these remarks by Casey are creepy and manipulative on so many levels.  The transparency of this is way too obvious.  It will backfire, bigly.

Nov 6 2023

Ron DeSantis Wins Endorsement From “America’s Most Unpopular Governor”


Posted originally on the CTH on November 5, 2023 | Sundance 

The timing here is just splendid.  According to multiple MSM sources, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds is scheduled to endorse Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for the 2024 GOP nomination.  The endorsement is scheduled to be announced tomorrow in Iowa.

This endorsement comes on the heels of a recent Morning Consult poll [SEE HERE] showing Governor Kim Reynolds is “America’s most unpopular governor.” How appropriate is that?!

[…] “Gov. Kim Reynolds (R-Iowa) is America’s most unpopular governor, with a 47% disapproval rating, up from 39% in the first quarter of 2023. Her unpopularity increased partly because of a surge in negative sentiment among independent and Republican voters during a year in which she signed a strict anti-abortion law and took a lashing from former President Donald Trump over her apparent closeness with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.).” (link)

[Source Link]

You might remember when I said, and repeated, to “watch the RGA.”  Well, surprise, surprise, guess who is the current RGA Chair?  Yup, Kim Reynolds. {link}  These people are entirely predictable.

[CTH, January 2023] […] “As I’m watching President Trump doing the familiar targeting of the GOPe roadmap, in this instance hitting the Club for Growth (CfG), my spidey senses are telling me their modified 2024 path will involve increased emphasis on the Republican Governors Association (RGA).

In the 2020 midterms, the RGA headed by Arizona Governor Doug Ducey was positioning: specifically positioning Ron DeSantis.  If the modified establishment roadmap rolls out as it looks right now, I suspect the RGA will play a key role in it.”  (keep reading)

You might not have remembered the way the RGA was positioning [reference the $20 million donation to DeSantis in April 2022, which was always intended as a laundry operation for the 2024 GOP primary], which always had this Reynolds endorsement lined up to be triggered, but at least we know Donald Trump saw the roadmap as outlined.

Back in February, 2023, President Donald Trump was noting the same strategic plays that we were.  Fortunately, he was keeping an eye on how the Republican Governors Association (RGA) was intending to execute their anti-MAGA moves against the base working class voters. [Trump Truth]

[Background Article]

Once you see the strings on the marionettes, it becomes impossible to return to that moment in the performance when you did not see them.

Lastly, while this endorsement was pre-baked into the 2024 roadmap and entirely predictable, it has been triggered early.

Kim Reynolds endorsing Ron DeSantis is a break from tradition.  The Iowa governor rarely endorses a presidential candidate; hence, that was the motive for the plan.  The roadmap added this little ‘shock and awe’ move as part of the design long before people were even willing to admit that DeSantis was running.  However, the endorsement was not supposed to happen until after the 2023 holidays, when it would be closer to the Iowa caucuses and carry more benefit.

Why did the DeSantis handlers need to trigger this endorsement early?  Because DeSantis is going backward in Iowa and Nikki Haley is now pushing ahead of him.

The more the Iowa voters get to see Ron DeSantis, the less they like him.

The GOPe roadmap is collapsing… the timing of this predictable move by the RGA component shows desperation.

The billionaire class of the professional Republican manipulators are failing, Bigly!

Be of good cheer, we are kicking their ass! 

[Source]

Sep 10 2023

Astroturf Fakery Has Consequences – DeSantis Team Now Says Second Place in Iowa Is Good Enough


Posted originally on the CTH on September 9, 2023 | Sundance 

With the latest poll in Iowa showing President Trump with a commanding 51/14 lead over Ron DeSantis, the people in control of the DeSantis operation are now lowering the bar to say a second-place finish is good enough to continue.

Team DeSantis has essentially camped out in Iowa for the past several weeks, pulling all their resources from other states as the polling for their candidate has consistently gotten worse.

The goal of reboot 4.0 was to focus heavily on Iowa and to a lesser extent New Hampshire.  However, after weeks of campaigning in Iowa, the polling has only gone backward.  DeSantis has lost half the support he originally carried as the Florida Governor tours the state.

(Politico) – […] “We believe it’s already a two-person race,” a top DeSantis campaign official granted anonymity to discuss strategy told POLITICO. “But the reality is, on the ballot there are other choices, and our goal is to get this down to a two-person race on the ballot, especially as we head into South Carolina and beyond into March.”

Speaking ahead of DeSantis’ weekend trip to Iowa, the official said “a strong second-place showing gives us an opportunity to go in[to] New Hampshire and show success.”

Expectations-setting is a tried and true element of every campaign, and DeSantis’ team remains bullish about his ability to make up ground. But coming four months before the first votes are cast in Iowa, the sentiments from the DeSantis campaign official reflect the yawning gap that’s emerged between the Florida governor and former President Donald Trump in both national and Iowa polls.

DeSantis’ operation has looked to Iowa as a springboard. Shortly before the first primary debate, the head of his allied super PAC, Never Back Down, privately told donors that they anticipated a win in the state. (read more)

With the increased desperation and the retreat of big donors, the DeSantis operation really needs the Bush network to step up big for the Fox Business Debate scheduled this month at the Reagan Library in California.  Dana Perino has moved into position.

The Bushes, Prescotts, multinationals and professional Republicans funded by Sea Island billionaires will now start to overemphasize the “chaos Trump” narrative, in order to wear down the psyche of the base Republican voters.  They really need mental fatigue to erode the Trump support, and you can see the efforts taking place in the alignment of narratives shared by the Democrats and the Republicans.

The big problem the GOPe face is that now the larger voting base have caught on to the “illusion of choice” playbook.  Ordinary voters can see how the schemes are being constructed, and the support for Donald Trump continues to grow.  This was evidenced in the Iowa -vs- Iowa State football game earlier today.

Crowds in the Iowa football sphere were heavily enthusiastic about President Trump, and Ron DeSantis at the same event seemed even smaller than usual.  Whoever keeps coming up with these efforts to compare and contrast is really not helping DeSantis at all.  The Florida Governor looks small and silly despite being supported and carried around by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds.

Wow. Rough day for @RonDeSantis who is having a tailgate at the Iowa versus Iowa State football game today. Tons of people have already arrived in their Trump jerseys and Trump hats!