NEW YORK, January 16. /TASS/. Former US President Donald Trump secured a landslide victory in the Republican caucuses (gatherings of party activists) in the key Midwestern farm state of Iowa, according to the results published on the Iowa Republican Party’s website.

With all ballots counted, Trump scored 51% of the vote. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis came in second with 21.2%, while former South Carolina Governor and US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley placed third with 19.1%. Haley did succeed in one of Iowa’s 99 counties in outdoing the vote count of Trump, in whose administration she served.

Among other GOP candidates, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who came in fourth with 7.7%, announced he was calling an end to his quixotic presidential quest and planned to endorse Trump in the upcoming general election in November.

The January 15 caucuses in Iowa mark the start of the Republican Party’s process for selecting its nominee to go up against the eventual Democratic Party nominee, who it is widely assumed will be incumbent President Joe Biden, in the November presidential vote.

The US will hold its 60th quadrennial presidential election on Tuesday, November 5, 2024. Biden officially launched his campaign to seek a second term in the White House on April 25, 2023. His predecessor, Trump, announced his own comeback re-election bid in November 2022. He is regarded as the runaway favorite to win the Republican Party’s nomination, which would be Trump’s third time in a row at the top of the GOP ticket.