exas Sen. Ted Cruz swept to victory over Donald Trump in Iowa’s Republican caucuses Monday night — with Marco Rubio hard on his heels with a re-energized campaign — while Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were locked in a virtual dead heat in the Democratic contest.
With all but 10 precincts reporting in the Democratic race early Tuesday, Clinton had 49.9 percent of the vote, while Sanders had 49.6 percent.
Iowa Democratic Party officials said early Tuesday that they were still gathering results from some precincts where those in charge failed to report results in a timely manner.
In at least three precincts, the Democratic outcome was so close that party officials ordered a coin toss to determine which candidate should receive an extra county convention delegate, a longstanding tiebreaking method. The Des Moines Register reported that Clinton won all three coin flips at precincts in Des Moines, Davenport, and Ames.
Regardless of the final outcome, the result reflected a strong showing for Sanders, who had trailed Clinton by nearly 30 points over the summer. Sanders said the results sent a “profound message†to the media and political establishment.
Cruz, too, cast his victory as a message to the establishment.
“Tonight is a victory for the grassroots. Tonight is a victory for courageous conservatives across Iowa and all across this great nation,†Cruz told cheering supporters.
Speaking to supporters at Drake University, Clinton still sounded optimistic about the final result but did not declare victory outright.
“As I stand here tonight, breathing a big sigh of relief, thank you Iowa. I want you to know that I’ll keep standing up for you, keep fighting for you. Join me. Let’s go win that nomination,†she said.
Early Tuesday, Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon declared victory of sorts, saying, "we believe strongly that we won tonight." Spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri added, "We feel like we have great momentum going into [the] New Hampshire [primary Feb. 9]. This was a very hard fought state."
Sanders noted that Iowa's 44 Democratic national convention delegates would be distributed almost evenly between the two candidates. The Associated Press reported that Clinton had captured at least 22 delegates to Sanders' 21, with one left to be decided.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/02/02/cruz-wins-iowa-gop-caucuses-clinton-sanders-race-too-close-to-call.html?intcmp=hpbt1
