{"id":26129,"date":"2016-02-03T09:06:20","date_gmt":"2016-02-03T17:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/trump-boosts-iowa-turnout-but-loses-votes\/"},"modified":"2016-02-03T09:06:20","modified_gmt":"2016-02-03T17:06:20","slug":"trump-boosts-iowa-turnout-but-loses-votes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/trump-boosts-iowa-turnout-but-loses-votes\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump boosts Iowa turnout, but loses votes"},"content":{"rendered":"

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa \u2014<\/strong> Donald Trump\u2019s presence is drawing unprecedented attention to the Republican presidential contest. But after careful consideration, many new Iowa voters turned to his rivals instead.<\/p>\n

The political newcomer logged a second-place finish in Iowa\u2019s kick-off caucuses, performing far better than anyone could have imagined just seven months ago when he jumped into the race. The Manhattan developer managed to pull in more than 45,000 votes, far more than 2012 winner Rick Santorum, who many view as being more compatible with the state\u2019s conservative electorate.<\/p>\n

But Trump\u2019s own decision to escalate expectation, coupled by an outmaneuvered ground game, set his supporters up for disappointment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to have a tremendous victory,\u201d Trump told voters at his final rally in Cedar Rapids before voting began.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the news commentators…. they say, \u2018Wouldn\u2019t you be better off if you just said we want to do well in Iowa?\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I said, \u2018Not really. I mean, I want to be truthful. I\u2019m a truthful person. I want to win Iowa, I don\u2019t want to do well. I want to win.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The misconception \u2014 shared by Trump and much of the media \u2014 was that a boost in voter turnout would disproportionately benefit Trump and his rival Bernie Sanders on the Democratic side.<\/p>\n

The race did attract large numbers of newcomers, with nearly 187,000 voters turning out at caucus sites, where cars were backed up for blocks at some sites and standing-room only at others.<\/p>\n

But in the end, according to an entrance poll of those arriving at caucus sites conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and television networks, many of those newcomers voted for Cruz and Florida\u2019s Marco Rubio. And of the 45 percent of caucus-goers who said they decided who to support in just the final week, 29 percent supported Rubio, 27 percent supported Cruz and just 14 percent supported Trump.<\/p>\n

Among them was Davenport\u2019s Dwight Reese, 55, who\u2019d been torn between Trump and Cruz when he attended a Trump rally earlier this week. In the end, he broke for Cruz.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got kind of caught up in the Trump phenomenon,\u201d said Reese before leaving for his caucus site. He said the fact Trump hasn\u2019t always held conservative positions had given him pause. Cruz, he said, \u201cstands for everything I believe in. I believe I can trust him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also cited by voters was Trump\u2019s decision to skip the final GOP debate before the caucus.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo skip it was not a good idea,\u201d she Monica Baier, 47, who caucused for Trump and said she was disappointed by the loss.<\/p>\n

There were also signs that Trump\u2019s secretive and non-traditional operation had been outmaneuvered.<\/p>\n

While Cruz modeled his campaign after past Iowa winners, visiting all of the state\u2019s 99 counties and courting influential evangelical and conservative leaders, Trump visited less frequently. Instead of working to woo undecided voters one-on-one in coffee shops and diners, Trump stuck to the large rally format that has been the hallmark of his campaign. When reporters were invited to document his first visit to a local Pizza Ranch restaurant, the location was closed to the public. Trump delivered a quick pep talk to dozens of campaign volunteers attending a caucus training session and left without trying a slice.<\/p>\n

In the week leading to the caucuses, there was also a distinct feeling on the ground that his support was cooling. There were empty seats at rallies in Waterloo and Sioux City; audiences were dominated by out-of-state and on-the-fence voters rather than hard-core fans.<\/p>\n

Voters interviewed at events across the state also frequently reported having received no outreach from the campaign, suggesting the ground game Trump\u2019s team had tried to hype was not as effective as his rivals\u2019. Indeed, among the 36 percent of Iowa caucus-goers who said they were contacted by someone asking them to come out to support their candidate, Cruz had a 31 percent to 23 percent advantage over Trump, the entrance poll showed.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Trump and his supporters are downplaying the impact as they turn their attention to New Hampshire, which voted on Feb. 8.<\/p>\n

Trump delivered a gracious concession speech at his debate headquarters in West Des Moines Monday night, but was already lashing out at the media and voters by Tuesday afternoon, tweeting that, \u201cThe media has not covered my long-shot great finish in Iowa fairly. Brought in record voters and got second highest vote total in history!\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump supporter Karen Riccelli, 60, of Des Moines, said she was disappointed by the loss, but didn\u2019t think it would have lasting impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think his supporters are going to stay with him. This is the first one in the country,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a long ways to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Follow Colvin on Twitter at twitter.com\/colvinj<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

AP News Survey Specialist Emily Swanson contributed to this report from Washington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa \u2014 Donald Trump\u2019s presence is drawing unprecedented attention to the Republican presidential contest. But after careful consideration, many new Iowa voters turned to his rivals instead. The political newcomer logged a second-place finish in Iowa\u2019s kick-off caucuses, performing far better than anyone could have imagined just seven months ago when he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-26129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26129\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26129"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=26129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}