Donald Trump claimed on Tuesday that his successful performance in Monday’s Iowa caucus was somehow historic, but that isn’t true. President Barack Obama outperformed Trump when he ran for reelection in 2012.
“I had the largest re-election vote in the history of that great state, by far, beating President Obama’s previous record by a lot,” Trump tweeted. “Also, 97 percent Plus of the vote! Thank you Iowa!”
The Iowa Republican Party’s official results show that Trump received 97.15 percent of the vote. Former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh received 1.08 percent of the vote on Monday night, and William Weld, a former governor of Massachusetts, received 1.31 percent of the vote. Another 0.47 percent of the vote went to “other.”
Appearing at a caucus site in Ankeny on Monday, Walsh told voters that because of Trump, the Republican Party is losing support from women, people of color, and young voters.
“If we aren’t careful, we are going to become a party of old white guys,” Walsh said.
In 2012, President Obama ran unopposed and received 98.44 percent of the vote, a higher level of support than the number Trump is touting as “the largest re-election vote in the history” of Iowa. Of the 8,152 convention delegates awarded in the Iowa caucus that year, Obama received 8,065 of them for 99 percent support, with only 87 delegates (1 percent) backing the “uncommitted” position.
Obama went on to overwhelmingly win the general election against Mitt Romney, despite the endorsement Romney received from Trump.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
