The Daily Signal - Trump Won Iowa. Political Insider Explains Why

Episode Date: January 16, 2024

The polls didn't lie. Former President Donald Trump was projected to be the winner of the Iowa caucuses Monday night just about 30 minutes after they began. In the polls, Trump had a 30-point lead, give or take, over former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as Iowans arrived at their caucus locations at 7 p.m. local time.  Following his win, Trump told Fox News Digital that he is “greatly honored by such an early call." "It really is an honor that, minutes after, they’ve announced I’ve won—against very credible competition—great competition, actually," Trump said. Eli Huber, Iowa state director of Heritage Action for America, told “The Daily Signal Podcast” he is not surprised by the caucus results.  “Based off my conversations with activists all around the state of Iowa, I'm not really surprised that President Trump, despite now being nearly four years since he was in office, continues to have a lot of the same energy that we saw back in 2020,” Huber says.  New Hampshire voters will head to the polls Jan. 23 to cast their ballots in the first primary of the 2024 election, followed by South Carolina voters on Feb. 24. Huber joins the show to discuss the results of the Iowa caucuses, and the leading issues on the minds of voters as they begin casting ballots for the Republican 2024 presidential nominee. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Tuesday, January 16th. I'm Virginia Allen. Last night, around 8.30 p.m. Eastern, former president Donald Trump was announced the winner of the Iowa caucuses. Iowans are the first voters to officially signal who they want the GOP nominee to be in the 2024 presidential election. And Eli Huber is the state director for Heritage Action for America. and he's joining us right now to break down what exactly we saw in Iowa and what's ahead. Eli, thanks so much for being with us today. Thank you for having me. Well, you live in Wisconsin, but you cover a number of states in the Midwest and including Iowa,

looking at what is happening policy-wise in those states, where really the hearts and minds of voters are, where the American people are. So going into the caucuses on Monday night, we saw that Trump, had about a 30-point lead in the polls over Haley and DeSantis, give or take. Now, when you consider what happened on Monday night, are you surprised by the results? Based off my conversations with activists all around the state of Iowa, I'm not really surprised. Is President Trump, despite now being nearly four years since he was in office, continues to have a lot of the same energy that we saw back in 2020. It was fascinating to see that Eastern time, the caucuses started at 8 p.m.

Of course, local time in Iowa. It was 7 p.m. But it only took about 30 minutes for major news outlets, CNN, the Associated Press, Fox News, to call it for former president Donald Trump. Had you ever seen anything like that in your time covering elections that it was that fast of a call? Well, no, especially when it comes to a caucus system. It's quite insane that we got the results this quickly, especially considering the last contested GOP caucus it took till, you know, about 9 p.m. Central time to get results in. And then, you know, there was that disaster in 2020 of the Democrat caucus in which they were having issues with their app.

And they didn't even know the winner until a couple days afterwards. Okay. Wow. And we're going to talk in a second, a little bit more in depth about how caucuses work, some of that nitty-gritty. But let's start. talk about what the candidates did on the ground in Iowa. How much work did the three leading candidates, Trump, DeSantis, and Haley do headed in to the caucuses on Monday night? Yeah. So over the last few years, a lot of candidates start to gear up in Iowa. So we've seen the candidates holding events, both with donors and with grassroots around the state, as well as some of those larger rallies. And then, of course, you have the Iowa State Fair, which is always a very popular spot for candidates to go. And all of the major candidates were there and present around all of the voters.

Yeah. Well, we were both actually over the summer at the Iowa State Fair. And there were indeed many candidates that came through and a lot of energy. You could tell that a lot of those fairgoers were pretty used to the energy around election time. That it's just really a norm. in the state of Iowa. What do you think are the main issues that really drove a lot of individuals to go to the caucuses in Iowa on Monday night and, you know, obviously turn out in support majority for former president Donald Trump, but for any of the candidates, what were the issues that really were on the minds of Iowa voters? Yeah. So at the Iowa State Fair, at the Heritage Action Booth, we held a straw poll asking voters what issues were most important to them. And immigration was by far the biggest winner, immigration and crime. And then not far behind that was the economy as well.

And so I think a lot of people ended up going towards Donald Trump because when you look back to 2016, the main thing he ran on was immigration. And then you look at his time as president. The economy was trending in a pretty good direction prior to COVID. And I think a lot of Iowa voters said, well, this is a known entity that we can trust that we know is followed through in the past. And that's that's really what provided the results that we see tonight. If you compare what those issues are, immigration and the economy, the issues on the minds of Iowa voters, to what we're seeing in other states. Is that across the board a couple of the major issues for Republican voters?

or does it vary pretty drastically from state to state region to region in the country? Yeah. So immigration and crime is something that I think we're seeing all around the country. You know, every week I'm seeing more and more news stories pop up about the issues with the current administration and immigration. In fact, in my state of Wisconsin and Whitewater, there was a story about how a town of 12,000 has had a thousand illegal immigrants moved up there in the last year. here. So this is something that has now, it's on the front of mind of voters because they see it out and about in their communities. Hmm. Interesting point was made or argument was made by CNN in a report tonight. They did some polling outside of caucus locations in Iowa. And they, CNN writes, more than half of Republican

caucus goers in Iowa identify with the quote, mega movement. And few, according to CNN, are willing to acknowledge President Joe Biden's 2020 election victory as legitimate. So this is, according to CNN, polling. Do you think that that's true? I think that that's absolutely true. I think that the Republican Party has moved in a more conservative direction where people would identify that along with the phrase MAGA. And a lot of what that comes down to is pro-family values. And that's something that especially in Iowa is very popular.

In past elections, we've seen candidates like Ted Cruz in Mike Huckabee when the Iowa caucus. So, yeah, Iowa is very much so a America first, make America great again kind of state. Well, that's certainly what we saw from results on Monday night as voters made it very, very clear that they are backing Trump. So can you explain a little bit of how these caucuses work? I think we all have a pretty good handle on how primary elections work and walking into a voting location and casting our ballot for a candidate and then walking out. But explain what the difference is in a caucus. And for example, how many caucus locations do you have in the state of Iowa? Who gets to participate? How long does it take? What's involved? Yeah. So I'm glad you ask because I really love the Iowa caucus. So there's 1,670 precincts across the 99 counties in the state of Iowa. And pretty much what happens is everyone goes to their precinct location. This could be like an elementary school gym or a church or something like that.

And everyone sits in the room and each candidate, each campaign has a representative that can articulate to the voters in the room as to why they should support their candidate. And I think that's really great because as Iowa being first in the nation, they already get a lot of attention from the candidates. But it gives them another opportunity to be educated on the issues and to work together as a community to build a consensus around what they need locally to support. So really, the biggest difference in a caucus is that it is a more hands-on approach to voting. It's very old school, very original American. So, okay, so the speeches happen and all of the individuals who have chosen to come and participate are hearing speeches and it's sort of this final plea of which candidate are you going to back. And then they use paper ballots, is that correct, for Republican caucuses? Yeah, that's correct.

So then they vote on a secret ballot just like you would see in a primary. And then those votes are counted out in front of the precinct. And so all of the voters within that precinct can actually also inspect the ballots as they're being counted. Oh, wow. Interesting. It seems efficient the fact that it moves maybe a little bit, I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like it moves a little bit faster and definitely a little bit more localized and local involvement allows for more community involvement and engagement. It's a really interesting process to see play out. Now, the New Hampshire primary is a week away. This is the first primary state. How often do we see that an Iowa caucus winner then goes on to become the primary nominee for president?

Yeah. So as of late, Iowa has not been a very good predictor of who's going to be the nominee or the president. In fact, the last contested caucus, so not. including 2020, the last contested caucus in which the Iowa caucus picked the nominee was back in 2000 with George W. Bush. Okay. So it's been a little while. Yes, it's been quite a while. All right. Well, considering what we saw Monday night, any predictions for what we might see in New Hampshire and just in about a week? And then following that, the primary in South Carolina. Yeah, so I think that this is a pretty good indication of what we're going to see across the country is this primary in caucus season is different than what we typically see.

When there's a wide range of candidates having a former president on the ballot, I think has made quite a big difference. And I think other states will have similar results. Eli, before we let you go, I want to ask you just to share a little bit about heritage action for America's Sentinel program. And if anyone is interested in getting involved, how they can do that, who is allowed to participate? Who's it open to? Yeah. So anyone can participate that's interested in learning more about conservative policies and anyone that wants to be informed with what's going on. Sometimes it's very difficult to keep track of what's happening in Capitol Hill or in the state houses.

And really what we strive to do is be a voice for the grassroots in the states. in Washington, D.C. So if anyone's interested in getting involved, they can shoot me an email at Eli.com at heritageaction.com or go to our website, heritageaction.com. That's so great. And with the Sentinel program, what is really the primary mission for you guys that, you know, for us that work in Washington, D.C., we're kind of seeing the nitty-gritty of policy day in and day out.

But we know across America, you know, so many folks. are busy with normal life. And so what is the mission as you all recruit folks and try to get folks involved with the Sentinel program? What is your mission for them in diving in and getting involved with Heritage Action? Right. You're exactly on point with people get busy

and sometimes it's hard to even know. Where do I start? How do I get involved? We try to meet people where they are. So even if you're someone who's never been involved in politics before, we will help give you the tools and resources to be successful. So whether that helping walk through strategies on writing a letter to the editor, or here's the best way that you can give a testimony in your state house city council school board,

all of those things are things that we're willing to do to help out. So really what we strive to do is to help make sure that the average American citizens can have a seat at the table and part of the process. Love it. Well, Eli, thank you for your time. We really appreciate it. And we look forward to continuing to watch this election season unfold in 2024, no doubt. Going to be a wild ride. Interesting to see what happens next. Eli, we really appreciate your time. Thank you. Well, with that, that's going to do it for today's episode. Thanks so much for listening to the Daily Signal podcast. If you have not had the chance, make sure that you check out our evening show right here in this podcast feed where we bring you the top news of the day. Also, make sure to take them in to subscribe to the Daily Signal podcast wherever you like to listen or across all podcast platforms.

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