The 2024 presidential election officially began with the Iowa caucuses on Monday night, and it started with a huge win for Donald Trump.

The former President dominated the caucuses, capturing more than 50% of the vote in a six-way race. His popularity was only buoyed in recent months by the mounting state and federal charges against him.

According to entrance polls, nearly two-thirds of Iowa caucus goers said they would support President Trump, even if he is convicted of a crime. The same number of Iowa Republicans also do not believe Joe Biden was legitimately elected president in 2020.

These numbers underscore the difficulty of non-Trump candidates to break through in a party still in Trump’s clutches.

In a distant second and third place after Trump were Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, respectfully. DeSantis garnered roughly 21% of the vote, while Haley took just over 19%. Both performances were short of what each of their respective campaigns hoped to achieve.

DeSantis, Haley looking ahead to future contests after Trump runs away with Iowa caucuses

DeSantis, who visited all 99 counties in the state, built a well-oiled ground game machine and poured over $100 million into his Iowa operation hardly held on to second place. The Florida governor also failed to carry a single county in the caucuses.

Haley, who has recently surged in the polls, hoped to eclipse DeSantis for second place. While she fell just 2,000 votes short of him, Haley was the only candidate to overtake Trump in an Iowa county. Unofficial vote totals show Haley won Johnson County by one vote.

Despite her third place finish, Haley also made history on Monday night. The former South Carolina Governor and former UN Ambassador secured the strongest finish of any female candidate in a GOP presidential primary.

The campaign for President now heads to New Hampshire, where Nikki Haley appears to be the only candidate with a chance of overtaking Trump. Residents of that state will cast their votes on Tuesday, January 23rd.

In a speech following the Iowa caucuses, Haley declared the primary election “officially a two person race” between her and Trump. She then boarded a plane and headed straight for New Hampshire. Trump is also en route to New Hampshire on Tuesday, after stopping in New York at one of his ongoing trials.

DeSantis, who is polling in single digits in the Granite State, will instead focus his sites on South Carolina. South Carolina, Nikki Haley’s home state, holds the first-in-the-South primary takes place at the end of February.