Donald Trump accuses Ted Cruz of ‘illegally stealing’ Iowa caucus

“There has never been a successful republican leaving Iowa to really make it a successful run here in New Hampshire”, noted Spradling. “If he didn’t know about this, he needs to get rid of the people who were responsible for that”, Carson said.

After a day when he sounded reflective and even chastened by his Iowa loss, Donald Trump went back to war with Iowa victor Ted Cruz on Wednesday and accused him of stealing the election. Cruz said his campaign was coming out of Iowa with nearly as much money as Bush, Christie, Rubio, and Kasich – the four main establishment candidates – combined.

“I did a good job and I came in second and spent a lot less than anybody else”, he also said, adding that had he known he’d be so-well liked in Iowa, “I would have spent more time there and won it”.

“To a great extent, caucus night was a vindication of the (Marco) Rubio strategy of trying to become the main alternative to Donald Trump and Ted Cruz”, political analyst Dennis Goldford said.

Ben Carson came in fourth place with 9.3% of the votes and 3 delegates. I expect the party apparatus to get behind him strongly as the only thing that can keep Trump or Cruz from winning the nomination.

Trump, who finished second behind Cruz, lit up Twitter on Wednesday with a series of posts saying the outcome was tainted because the Cruz campaign had deliberately spread misinformation about Trump’s stand on Obamacare and an erroneous report that Ben Carson was dropping out of the race.

Cruz later apologised to Carson and said his team should have circulated Carson’s statement denying the rumours.

Jeanne O’Hurley from Brentwood stayed up late into Monday night watching Iowa’s results come in. The former secretary of state and first lady defeated Sanders by less than three-tenths of 1 percent, the closest result in Iowa Democratic caucus history, the state party said.

It’s only the first electoral event in a long 2016 race, but the Iowa caucuses already defied expectations and arguably reshaped the presidential race. “Also, Cruz sent out a VOTER VIOLATION certificate to thousands of voters”.

The Texas senator ultimately won the caucuses despite the fact that Trump had been leading polls for weeks before the voting started.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump has predicted he will win over voters next week in New Hampshire, where he has a substantial lead in polls.