Chris Mudd got the Iowa result that he wanted – a big Donald Trump win – but not the reaction he believes would be best for the Republican Party.
“I think all of the others should get out of the way,” was his take on what should happen now that the former president not only won Iowa, but did so convincingly.
That isn’t happening. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who finished a distant second, and third-place candidate Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor, vowed to fight on.
Mudd, who owns a solar energy company, was in a celebratory mood at the office Tuesday morning.
“Ninety-eight counties and over 50% of the vote. Not bad!” he texted.
Mudd is part of a CNN project to track the 2024 campaign through the eyes and experiences of voters who live in key places or are part of critical swing voting blocs. Four other members of our Iowa group settled on Haley in the end and were disappointed by the results. Only one of Iowa’s 99 counties – Johnson – was going for Haley at the end of the night, and just barely.
“I expected a Trump landslide,” said Shanen Ebersole, a cattle farmer who was among the few in conservative Ringgold County who voted for Haley. As the campaign moves on from Iowa, this was her hope: “The real question is who can beat Biden. That’s what Republicans need to focus on.”
Priscilla Forsyth is an attorney in Sioux City who caucused for Trump in 2016 and voted for him in both the 2016 and 2020 general elections. She backed Haley on Monday, because she was impressed by her campaign events and debate performances and because she believes it would be best for the GOP to move on from Trump.
“Looks like I’ll have to get my Trumpy bear back out, lol,” was one of the texts we received from Forsyth as the night unfolded. “I don’t…
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