Former President Donald Trump won Iowa, collecting its six electoral college votes, according to unofficial results from the Associated Press, on Tuesday.
Trump won the Hawkeye state by his largest margin yet — 13.7 percentage points as of 12:55 a.m. Calculating to 56.2 percent of the Iowa vote, Trump exceeded his triumphs in the state from previous elections.
The Associated Press called the state for Trump at 9:42 p.m. late Tuesday night.
Trump has picked up 210 Electoral College votes as of 9:42 p.m. on Tuesday, compared to Harris’s 112 in states the Associated Press has called so far. Results are still yet to come for West Coast states where the polls are still open.
Trump’s win in the state comes after the Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll found that Harris had picked up a three-point lead in the state, a lead within the poll’s margin of error. The September iteration of the Iowa poll found that Trump led Harris by four points in the state.
Trump previously won the state in 2016 and 2020 by 9 points and 8 points respectively. Trump won the Iowa Republican caucuses by 30 percentage points in January — the highest the contest has ever seen.
Voting for the first time, Ella Shanlo, a University of Iowa first-year, cast her ballot for Trump. An immigrant herself, Shanlo pegs immigration as a key issue influencing her vote.
Shanlo said she is confsued about Harris’s background, and finds Trump to be more honest.
“I feel Kamala is very confusing,” she said. “I still don’t know if she’s African American or if she’s Indian or if she’s half. I’m not sure about her background story, it’s just very twisted.”
Shanlo said voting in Iowa is even more important because of the recent poll in Harris’s favor.
“I think that means that your vote matters even more, and your decision that you can impact even more,” she said. “If you’re in a swing state — your vote will always matter — but also, that means, like you 10 times more important and you have more of a decision to impact you more.”
Brendyn Little, UI second-year, also cast his first ballot on Tuesday. Little voted for the former president, but said Trump was not his favorite choice, and saw the candidate as a lesser of two evils.
Little voted in favor of Trump because of his economic and immigration policies.
“I don’t really approve of Harris’s job as vice president,” Little said. “I think the big example was just the handling of the border.”
Independent first-time voter Aiden Schrader, UI third-year, also voted for Trump, and said his vote carries weight in Iowa’s contentious election.
“I was excited just to do my civic duty, put my opinion in, and make sure it counts,” he said.
Voting a down-ballot Republican ticket, Schrader said economic policies heavily influence his vote.
First-time voter Erich Profeta said rising costs of housing and groceries swayed him to vote for Trump, as well as the former president’s stance on immigration.
Profeta said Trump’s rhetoric about immigrants can be controversial, but he still has confidence in Trump’s ability to run the country.
“A lot of things he says can be silly or stupid,” he said. “But at the end of the day, I think he’s just someone who really is a leader.”
Profeta took Iowa’s swing state esque status as a chance to speak with people of various political view points. He described himself as a people-person who enjoys hearing differing views.
“I do enjoy sitting down with other people, members of other parties, and having conversations with them about why they vote for who they vote for,” Profeta said.
Trump’s history, influence
Before his political career, Trump was a New York businessman and the head of the Trump organization. He spent most of his career focused on real estate. Trump was also the co-host of the reality TV show “The Apprentice.”
Trump’s first term in office was plagued by scandals and he was the only sitting president to be impeached twice. Once for his alleged involvement in Russian interference with the 2016 election, and again for his alleged incitement of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The Senate voted to acquit both times.
Trump has been criticized for his alleged incitement of the violent mob that infiltrated the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 attempting to prevent the certification of the 2020 election results.
Trump repeatedly claimed that there was widespread voter fraud in 2020, without evidence, that led to his loss. Trump has continued the claims despite dozens of court rulings that found no evidence.
Trump is also the first former U.S. President and now the first president-elect to be convicted of 34 felony counts. Trump was convicted by a New York jury on 34 counts of election-related crimes for his hush-money payments to pornstar Stormy Daniels.
Trump was indicted on dozens of other felony counts for his role in attempting to overturn the election results, his mishandling of classified documents, and his role on Jan. 6.
During Trump’s campaign, he has rallied supporters with promises to revitalize the American economy, combat illegal immigration, and promises to restore America to its standing on the world stage.
Trump has been highly critical of Biden’s handling of the economy which saw skyrocketing inflation after the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump blamed Democratic spending bills for the inflation. However, experts say inflation is more likely the cause of inflationary pressures like supply chain shortages seen during the pandemic.
Inflation was at 2.4 percent in September 2024 comparable to inflation during Trump’s presidency. However, inflation reached a several-decade high in June 2022 at 9.1 percent.
Trump was also critical of Biden’s handling of immigration, which skyrocketed during Biden’s tenure. Trump said that Biden’s repeal of several Trump-era immigration policies like the “remain in Mexico” policy, which had asylum seekers wait in Mexico for their legal status in the U.S., for this spike in illegal immigration.
Biden saw record-high numbers of encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border. However, by the end of Biden’s tenure illegal immigration returned to pre-2020 levels seen under Trump.
Trump criticized Biden for his perceived weakness on the world stage.
Trump has attempted to link Harris, Biden’s vice president, to his perceived failure of Biden’s tenure in office.
Harris has criticized Trump on his stances on reproductive health, but those criticisms failed to land with the electorate.
Harris has criticized Trump for his role in overturning federal precedent that guaranteed a woman’s right to an abortion. Trump appointed three of the six conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices that overturned the precedent. Trump has claimed credit for the overturning publicly.
Trump, however, moderated his party’s position on abortion this summer during the Republican National Convention and has said the decision should be left up to state governments to decide.
Harris argued that Trump would sign a national abortion ban but he has not committed to sign one if presented to him.
Harris also attempted to link Trump to the highly unpopular policy platform produced by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative policy think tank, called Project 2025. Several former and current Trump advisers worked on the project and Trump’s vice president JD Vance wrote the foreword to the lead author’s book.
The project included a national abortion ban.