Iowa caucus narrows Republican presidential candidates

The GOP has turned its focus to New Hampshire after the Republican primary candidates’ first big test in Iowa on Tuesday.

Mitt Romney won the caucuses in Iowa by a mere eight votes after an election that looked like anyone’s game until late in the night.

Rick Santorum, who received a boost in Iowa polls during the week before the caucuses, was in a virtual dead heat with Romney as the votes came in. Santorum was able to capture the rural vote after visiting every county in the state.

“This has been an incredible journey. Ninety-nine counties, 381 town hall meetings, 36 Pizza Ranches,” Santorum said on caucus night. “We will be in New Hampshire. We’ll leave tomorrow. We’ll spend our time there. And with your help and God’s grace, we’ll have another fun night a week from now.”

In a heated speech on caucus night, Newt Gingrich blamed negative campaigning for his fourth-place finish. Gingrich was the frontrunner two weeks ago and stormed out of Iowa before all the results came in.

He left Des Moines, Iowa, in a chartered jet before midnight and headed straight to New Hampshire.

“We are not going to go out and run nasty ads, but I do reserve the right to tell the truth,” Gingrich said. “If the truth seems negative, that may be more a comment on (Romney’s) record than the nature of politics.”

Ahead of Gingrich in Iowa was Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who captured the youth vote in the state. Before Santorum’s late surge, Paul and Romney seemed to be the frontrunners in the campaign.

The other Texan in the race, Gov. Rick Perry, received 10 percent of the vote and said he would return to Texas to reassess his campaign, which many pundits took as the governor throwing in the towel.

On Wednesday morning, however, the governor sent a tweet that suggested his campaign was still active. Perry announced he was headed to New Hampshire with the other candidates and planned to head to South Carolina, where the primary is scheduled for Jan. 21.

“And the next leg of the marathon is the Palmetto State,” Perry said on Twitter, attaching a photo of himself in runners’ clothes. “Here we come South Carolina!!!”

Rep. Michelle Bachmann, R-Minn., dropped out of the race Wednesday morning after receiving only 5 percent of the Iowa vote.

“The people of Iowa spoke with a very clear voice, so I decided to stand aside,” Bachmann said. “I have no regrets, none whatsoever. We never compromised our principles.”

The remaining candidates will face off again in New Hampshire in the Jan. 10
primary.