Pastor and businessman Ryan Binkley, who is running for president as a Republican, garnered more support in Iowa than former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R), who is a better known candidate.
Former President Donald Trump came out of the Iowa caucuses as the runaway leader, garnering a majority — 51 percent support. By doing so, Trump took the record for having the largest margin of victory in Iowa’s Republican caucuses ever, leading Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis by nearly 30 points in the final results, receiving over 30,000 more votes than DeSantis, who got 21.2 percent of the votes.
Haley came close behind DeSantis with 19.1 percent support, with roughly 2,300 votes dividing the two.
Vivek Ramaswamy, who dropped out of the race Monday night and promptly endorsed Trump, came in fourth place with 7.7 percent support, taking three delegates in the Hawkeye State.
WATCH: Endorsed! Vivek Drops Out of Race, Throws “Full” Support Behind Trump
While no one else received any delegates, it should be noted that little-known candidate Ryan Binkley actually surpassed Hutchinson, who is openly anti-Trump. Hutchinson originally planned to stay in the race at least until March despite a total lack of momentum or support, but his poor performance in Iowa Monday night seemed to be enough for him to pull the ripcord, suspending his campaign.
“I stand by the campaign I ran,” Hutchinson said in a statement. “I answered every question, sounded the warning to the GOP about the risks in 2024 and presented hope for our country’s future.”
Binkley received .7 percent support with 774 votes. In comparison, Hutchinson saw .2 percent support, or 191 votes, per the New York Times’s Tuesday morning data. In other words, Binkley performed half a percent better than Hutchinson, garnering about 583 more votes.
The dour results for Hutchinson come despite his “RETURN TO NORMAL” tour across Iowa.
“Iowa understands normal #IowaCaucus,” he said, weeks ahead of his monumental defeat:
Today, I am announcing my “RETURN TO NORMAL” Tour through Iowa where I will visit more than a dozen cities next week. I have been called “normal” and America wants to return to controlled borders, job creation and a balanced budget. Iowa understands normal #IowaCaucus
— Gov. Asa Hutchinson (@AsaHutchinson) December 28, 2023
Hutchinson is also the same rival who asserted in 2023 that evangelicals wanted to move away from Trump.
“While there’s a regard for what happened during his [Trump’s] administration, particularly the evangelical base is saying, ‘Let’s have someone that brings out the goodness of America and not appeals to our worst instincts,’” Hutchinson said during a February 2023 appearance on Your World.
That assumption was and is patently false as well, given that Trump absolutely crushed it among evangelicals in Iowa.
As of Tuesday morning, two candidates — Ramaswamy and Hutchinson — had dropped out of the race following Trump’s blowout victory in the Iowa caucuses.
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