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They Failed To Convince Their Iowa Neighbors To Ditch Trump. What Did They Learn?

The precinct captains for the Iowa caucuses’ losing campaigns have a lesson for anyone trying to take down Trump: He’s still the center of everything.

Donald Trump
Donald Trump speaks at a caucus night party in Des Moines, Iowa. Andrew Harnik/AP Photo

MARQUISVILLE, Iowa — Cyndee Davis made her final case against Donald Trump on Monday in front of a high school stage decked with signs for Ron DeSantis and adorned with a nutcracker holding an American flag.

“I was a Trumper for eight years. He’s not the same man that he once was. He has backtracked,” Davis, the county Republican leading the night’s proceedings and precinct captain for the Florida governor, said in a short speech before the balloting began in this Des Moines suburb. “He didn’t drain the swamp in the four years he had. DeSantis is going to do it in eight — or four!”

Trump was declared the victor of the Iowa caucuses by a giant margin before some Iowans even had a chance to vote. When counting finished at Davis’ precinct, Trump won 52 to DeSantis’ 39 handwritten ballots.