Iowa caucuses results leave voters with plenty of options

Mr Trump also accused Mr Cruz’s team on Twitter of sending out a flyer created to look like an official electoral document to scare Iowa voters into turning out at the caucuses. He later went on Boston Herald Radio and said that he would “probably” file a formal complaint over the caucus results.

Trump also called Cruz a “nasty guy” and said “nobody likes him”, noting that his colleagues in the Senate have not endorsed him for president.

The real estate mogul accused victory Ted Cruz of voter fraud, and said he “stole” the win.

“I think it could have been the debate”, Trump, who finished second behind Ted Cruz, said during a news conference in Milford, N.H., on Tuesday. “And perhaps no state in the country demands more of their candidates than New Hampshire does and you should; the role you play is so important”.

The political meme of the moment suggests that Hillary Clinton narrowly edged out her Democratic presidential rival Bernie Sanders in the Iowa caucus due to six consecutive coin tosses wins. Sanders will take advantage of the long view in his own campaign narrative: He’s a little-known senator from a small state who could tie the Clinton machine.

Iowa Democratic Party spokesman Sam Lau noted that the flips were to determine county convention delegates, which are only fractions of the state delegates awarded to candidates. Only 1 percent of the delegates needed to win the primary nomination were decided yesterday.

New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary will be held on February 9.

Earlier in the day, Trump fired off a raging tweetstorm accusing Cruz of cheating in Iowa.

Polls show well over half of Republican voters are undecided in New Hampshire.

His tally – just above 24 per cent, for second place after Cruz and just ahead of Senator Marco Rubio – in the first vote after months of wall-to-wall media coverage raises serious questions about whether showmanship has a winning strategy. Other candidates will decide by then whether to follow former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to the sidelines.