Cruz beats Trump in Iowa presidential race, Rubio takes third place

The real estate tycoon said he never expected such a second place finish in Iowa when he started his campaign on June 16, 2015.

The results for the Iowa caucuses, the first state vote for the Democratic and GOP presidential nominees, are here-well, kind of. Trump has led the pack of Republican candidates for months.

The Iowa caucuses mark the beginning of the Presidential election season in the United States, and are seen as a litmus test for voting trends in the rest of the country. Republicans in the state chose Texas Sen.

But the biggest surprise among the Republicans was how well Marco Rubio did.

Among Democrats, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were deadlocked in a tight race.

Cruz, a conservative lawmaker from Texas, won with 28% of the vote compared to 24% for businessman Trump, according to MSNBC.

“Tonight is a victory for the grassroots”.

“That’s how it works”, one voter sporting Sanders stickers said.

Democrats, meanwhile, are in a nail-biter with Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders essentially tied. But Sanders would not say whether he considers anything less than victory there a successful outcome.

Trump has shaken the Republican Party perhaps more than any other candidate, though he was unable to turn his legion of fans into an Iowa victory. “I will keep fighting for you”. But almost 6 in 10 caucus-goers between 45 and 64 and 7 in 10 of those 65 and older came out to support Clinton. Her campaign spent almost a year building a get-out-the-vote operation in Iowa yet still seemed to be caught off guard by the enthusiasm surrounding Sanders.

The Democratic race is too close to call, running neck and neck in the race for delegates.

Armies of campaign volunteers have fanned out through the state in recent days, knocking on doors or manning phone banks to get out the vote, while candidates dominated the air waves with talk show appearances and a relentless barrage of campaign ads.

Iowa’s first-in-the-nation vote is seen as an important way for candidates to gain energy in the USA primary election process.

Mother Nature: A blizzard held off until after the caucuses finished, helping push huge turnout for both parties. New terror threats at home and overseas have increased national security concerns.

Voters at Republican caucuses indicated they were deeply unhappy with the way the federal government is working.

The survey was conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks by Edison Research as voters arrived at 40 randomly selected sites for Democratic and Republican caucuses. This is not necessarily welcome news for the Republican party leadership, however, as a lot of them happen to hate the guy.

The third Democratic candidate, Martin O’Malley, has suspended his campaign after trailing badly. The former Arkansas governor was the 2008 Iowa victor.

The race now moves on to New Hampshire, where Trump has strong support from disenfranchised voters who are frustrated with Washington under the Obama administration. In addition to losing to Cruz, Trump also underperformed relative to Sen.