Monday’s caucuses in Iowa were won by Senator Ted Cruz for the Republicans and Hillary Clinton for the Democrats.
Mr Cruz prevailed despite trailing in opinion polls while Mrs Clinton beat Senator Bernie Sanders by just 0.2%.New Hampshire is seen as a quite different challenge for the parties.The state’s more moderate and less religious electorate may prove a tougher nut for Mr Cruz to crack in the primaries it is due to hold on 9 February.Donald Trump, long the frontrunner in the Republican contest, is expected to do much better than in Iowa, which held the nation’s first vote.On the Democrat side, Mr Sanders is seen as having a home advantage in New Hampshire over Mrs Clinton, being a senator of the neighbouring state of Vermont. Even before Mrs Clinton’s narrow victory was announced officially, Mr Sanders was up at 05:00 (10:00 GMT) and aboard a flatbed lorry, being greeted by supporters in the New Hampshire town of Bow.Telling the crowd that his campaign had “astounded the world” in Iowa, he promised it would “astound the world again” in New Hampshire.In the same state, Ms Clinton declared victory, saying she is “so proud [she is] coming to New Hampshire after winning Iowa”.”I’ve won and I’ve lost there, and it’s a lot better to win,” she said in reference to her loss in the state in 2008.Final results show Mrs Clinton took 49.8% in Iowa to Mr Sanders’ 49.6% – a difference of just 0.2%.Senator Cruz took 27.6% of the Republican vote to 24.3% for Donald Trump. In polling ahead of the vote, Mr Trump had the advantage.
Mr Cruz declared his win a “victory for courageous conservatives”.However, the big surprise came from Senator Marco Rubio, who finished a surprisingly strong third with 23.1% – just slightly behind Mr Trump.For his part, Mr Trump gave a speech as the results became clear in which he congratulated Mr Cruz and said how much he appreciated his time in Iowa.But the gloves appeared to come off on Tuesday, when Mr Trump broke his silence on Twitter.”I don’t believe I have been given any credit by the voters for self-funding my campaign, the only one. I will keep doing, but not worth it!” he wrote.”I started out with all of the experts saying I couldn’t do well there and ended up in 2nd place,” he tweeted. “Because I was told I could not do well in Iowa, I spent very little there – a fraction of Cruz & Rubio. Came in a strong second.”The results determine how the state’s delegates will be allocated, which ultimately determines who will become their party’s nominee. source:BBC
