Ron & Nikki’s Road to Perdition

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley speaks at a campaign event following her third-place finish in the Iowa caucus on January 16, 2024, in Manchester, New Hampshire.
No, Iowa wasn’t essential for Nikki Haley—but she wanted it, and made a late play for it. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Peter Hamby
January 17, 2024

For all the inside baseball talk about frigid weather and turnout operations and which Republican candidate “needed” a second-place finish, there’s really only one lesson to take away from the Iowa caucuses last night: This is Donald Trump’s Republican Party.