Worsening Russian-US relations make experts attentively follow the presidential election campaign in the US, in which the new head of the White House will be elected this November. (See ‘Russia following the US election campaign’). Yesterday, a candidate from the Republican Party, billionaire Donald Trump, who took second place in the primaries in Iowa, accused his rival, the senator from Texas, Ted Cruz, of stealing Trump’s victory, as Cruz cheated during the election campaign. Cruz gained 27.65%, Trump got 24.31%. Third place was taken by the senator from Florida, Marco Rubio.
Dmitry Drobnitsky, a political scientist-americanist, thinks that second place in Iowa is a good result for Trump as a man who is quite liberal, divorced twice, and a tycoon in real estate which is not considered to be the cleanest sphere in business in America. “Among other things, Trump is an aspiring politician. Let us not forget that this is the first political season for him as such. In Iowa, which holds indirect primaries, where people do not go to polls, and the hierarchical system of the party conventions at the places is being carried out, one should be working very well on one's organization on the ground, have a large number of volunteers. That is, this is such a new job for him, which he handled on the whole.”
According to the expert, Iowa is not an indicator for the Republican Party. “The great Ronald Reagan, for whom all the Americans are for him, ignored Iowa completely. McCain carried out very little campaigning in his time, and still became the nominee. In this sense, the stakes were high for only one person in these primaries, for Ted Cruz. Rubio had counted on third place; he got it, relying on some influence and rating in the future. Therefore, intrigue continues,” Drobnitsky concludes.
He believes that the mood of the electorate has changed substantially. “It's difficult to recall another year in which the mood of the electorate was changing so radically. That is, in fact, it's an amazing second place for Trump at the caucuses in Iowa and there is a surprising result by Bernie Sanders on a par with Hillary Clinton [from the Democratic Party]. Sanders is not only a self-titled socialist, but also a person who is an independent senator… American voters are showing extreme fatigue from the official policy, at least from the leadership of United America. Republican candidates, Cruz and Trump, and Democrat Sanders will strongly demonstrate that they go against United America.”
