DES MOINES, Iowa—Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley was in the air and headed for New Hampshire before all Iowa caucuses had reported results on Jan. 15, leaving behind a third-place finish and speculation about how many of the nearly 21,100 votes she received statewide were cast by Democrats playing “Republican for a day.”
President Trump won the GOP vote in 98 of Iowa’s 99 counties. While Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis finished a distant second with 23,420 votes, or 21.2 percent, edging past Ms. Haley by 1.1 percent, she was the only candidate not named Trump to win a county.
In Johnson County, the home of the University of Iowa and one of few counties in the state where Democrats outnumber Republicans, the former South Carolina governor—who served as United Nations ambassador in the Trump administration—received 1,271 votes, one more than the former president.
As of Jan. 3, there were 39,216 registered Democrats, 13,948 registered Republicans, and 21,475 unaffiliated voters on the county’s rolls, according to the Johnson County Auditor’s Office.
Several polls and anecdotal observations that caucus captains and voters shared with Epoch Times reporters strongly suggest that Ms. Haley benefitted from state election law that allows eligible citizens to register to vote or switch parties at caucus sites before ballots are cast.
It may take several weeks before county auditors and Iowa Republican Party officials can ascertain how many new voters registered for the first time or switched parties to participate in the Jan. 15 caucus.
No Iowa GOP officials were available to discuss the results or caucus-day registrations at the organization’s office near the state Capitol on Jan. 16. Phone calls and emails to party officials went unanswered.
However, voters and caucus captains had plenty to say after votes concluded.
“Just guessing over 50 percent of new registrations were switching parties,” a precinct chair in Waterloo told The Epoch Times. “They mostly said, ‘We are independents, switching to Republican', but from their body language, not so much.”
A voter in Grinnell told The Epoch Times, “It appeared a lot of the people that had to sign up to be registered Republicans tonight ended up voting for Haley. I thought that was really interesting.”
Jacqueline Rieckena and Lily Duncan of West Des Moines actually arrived at soon-to-be-former candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s caucus watch at The Surety Hotel, unaware that the former president had already been declared the winner.
They thought Ms. Haley was winning—as she had in their Precinct 311. According to Ms. Rieckena, who caucused for Mr. Ramaswamy, Ms. Haley won the precinct with 83 votes followed by President Trump with 50, Mr. DeSantis with 33, and Mr. Ramaswamy with 17.
‘Lot of New Registrations’
It was the same in several other precinct caucuses, she said.“Everywhere we’ve been, Nikki Haley won,” she said.
Ms. Duncan told The Epoch Times that “a lot of first-time caucus-goers” participated in her caucus, with “at least 30” switching parties to Republican from Democrat to vote for Ms. Haley.
A couple who spoke with The Epoch Times at a Pleasant Hill church where they were caucusing said they were participating in the GOP vote because of their concern that President Trump might return to office.
Christine Urish said she switched her registration to Republican from Democrat. Tom Crone, sitting next to her, said he was previously an independent.
Ms. Urish wasn’t sure if she would prefer Ms. Haley to Mr. Biden but was certain either would be better than the former president.
“He wants to be a dictator,” she said.
A significant number of newly registered voters participated in caucuses in Bremer County, although county Republican committee Chairman John Pentecost couldn’t say if they were Democrats, independents, or new members of the party.
“We did have a lot of independents that came and registered last night as Republicans. That surprised me,” he told The Epoch Times. “I don’t know if they will stay that way or if they'll re-register as independent after the fact, but we took in a lot of new Republican voters last night, a lot of new registrations.”
