Donald Trump's resounding victory in the Iowa caucuses, the first step in the primary race, already has a first victim. Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, fourth in the vote behind Trump, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, is throwing in the towel. Ramaswamy, a tech entrepreneur, has been spending some of his own fortune on the campaign and has tirelessly scoured every corner of Iowa for months. When push comes to shove, however, he has only won just over 7% of the vote.
Ramaswamy had a moment of prominence in the first debate, when it was the surprise factor. He played the role of a kind of millennial Trumpist who aired hoaxes and conspiracy theories. He was trying to be a kind of copy of Trump, but voters have preferred the original.
The candidate received devastating attacks from Chris Christie and Nikki Haley, mainly. "You're nothing but scum," Nikki Haley told him in one of the debates after he mentioned his daughter.
Given that Ramaswamy has been an admirer of Trump and has defended his presidency and shared many of his ideas, it is possible that the candidate's withdrawal will further widen Trump's lead at the front of the race for the nomination. The retired candidate has expressly asked for a vote for the former president, whom during the campaign he has insistently referred to as the "best president of the 21st century."
According to AP data, with 93% of the votes counted, Trump achieves 50.9%, followed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis with 21.3% and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley with 19.1%. Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy is fourth, with less than 8% of the vote, while endorsements for surviving candidates Ryan Binkley (pastor-businessman-politician) and Asa Hutchinson (former governor of Arkansas) are rather testimonial, below 1%. Such an advantage means almost knocking out his opponents in the first round.
[Breaking news. An update will be coming soon.]
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