Iowa caucus yields surprises for both parties

The 2016 Iowa Caucus for the primary presidential candidates took place yesterday, February 1.

After votes and delegates were calculated, Ted Cruz won the Republican vote and Hilary Clinton won the Democratic vote. These calculations were not fully complete until today, when Clinton’s win was officially announced. The votes for the Democratic candidates were incredibly close, causing a delay in the final results to be announced.

On the Republican docket, 12 candidates were competing for the winning vote, or at the very least the top three. Those fortunate three were Ted Cruz, Donald Trump and Marco Rubio. Ted Cruz won the election with eight delegates and 27.6 percent of the votes.  His close runner-up was Donald Trump with seven delegates and 24.3 percent favorability. Next in line was Marco Rubio, also with seven delegates, and 23.1 percent of the votes.

Each of these candidates finished mere points away from the other, while the rest of the candidates finished approximately 10 to 20 points away. Many of the remaining candidates are predicted to drop after the results. One candidate, Mike Huckabee, announced his withdrawal from the race shortly after the Republican results were in.

The Democratic poll was much smaller than the Republican race, with only three candidates: Hilary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley. After counting the votes and six coin tosses, Clinton won a virtual tie with Bernie Sanders. Each candidate gained about half of the total votes, with Clinton ending with 49.9 percent and 23 delegates and Sanders ending with 49.6 percent and 21 delegates. After only receiving approximately 1 percent of the votes, O’Malley resigned from the presidential race.

The next caucus will take place next week in New Hampshire on Tuesday, Feb. 9. There are a total of four caucuses left this month before the polls will open on March 1 for “Super Tuesday” when the citizens of Tennessee will step up to the polls.