President Donald Trump has won the 2020 Iowa Republican caucus with 28,833 votes and 86 percent of precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press.

The president received more than 97 percent of the votes with 86 percent of precincts reporting.

Donald Trump Jr. stood at the Oakwood Road Community Church and said he wasn’t worried about the outcome.

“It seems like we may have this one covered,” Donald Trump Jr. said before the outcome was called by the Associated Press.

The Iowa Poll poll conducted by Selzer & Company for the Des Moines Register, CNN and MediaCom also potentially predicted this win.

From March to November in 2019, the president’s approval rating among Iowa Republicans rose 4 percent from 85 percent. The vote share among Iowa Republicans to reelect the president went from 76 percent to 85 percent.

Even with the impeachment trial in progress, supporters said Donald Trump is still accomplishing his commitments from the 2016 election.

“While they were signing the articles of impeachment, Donald Trump was signing a trade deal with China so they could no longer rip us off,” Donald Trump Jr. said. “We have a president who is doing all of the things you elected him to do.”

Peter Boman, an Ames Resident, said he caucused for Donald Trump because he has followed through with trade, jobs, the economy and much more.

“He kept his promises,” Boman said.

Donald Trump defeated two Republican competitors, Joe Walsh and Bill Weld, former congressman and former governor, respectively.

Mack Shelley, Iowa State professor and chair of the political science department, said the other candidates have not been as much of a presence in Iowa compared to Donald Trump. 

“Joe Walsh and William Weld have had some presence in Iowa, but their efforts have been minimal and pale in comparison to what Trump has done personally — the recent trip to Des Moines — and through his surrogates,” Shelley said.

Shelley said they are trying to “attack” Donald Trump from both his left and right flanks.

“Walsh is pretty much trying to attack Trump from the right, claiming that Trump is not a genuine conservative and that Walsh made a bad mistake in his previous strong support for Trump,” Shelley said. “Weld is arguably a moderate with strong pro-environment positions and a much less doctrinaire brand of support for capitalism. As former governor of Massachusetts, Weld has a claim to executive leadership. Walsh is a one-term former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois, so he has minimal national political experience and made a name for himself primarily as a conservative talk-radio host.”

Andrew Ohaver said he caucused in Ames for Bill Weld. 

“We’re running a trillion dollar deficit in peace time, and I think that’s a problem,” Ohaver said. “If Trump maintains the presidency, it looks like it’s going to continue doing that. On the whole, this is mostly a protest against where I feel his presidency is heading.”

When coming to other candidates running against President Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr. said, “No one is going to work harder than my father.”

Donald Trump Jr. mentioned the Iowa Democratic caucus by mentioning Elizabeth Warren and her claim to Native American heritage and Joe Biden’s mispronunciation of which state he is in.

“Common sense is the only thing that’s not common in Washington anymore,” Donald Trump Jr. said.

Four years ago, however, the outcome was very different for Donald Trump in the Iowa Caucuses. In the 2016 Iowa caucuses, Trump came in second to Ted Cruz by a margin of more than 6,000 votes. 

Shelley said the outcome of the 2020 caucus is in part due to Donald Trump supporters.

“This time around, the caucuses are much more like a coronation,” Shelley said. “Four years ago, there was a split verdict with Trump second to Ted Cruz and barely ahead of Marco Rubio. This year’s Republican participants are just about uniformly true believers in the Trump agenda and persona.”

Despite the results of the Iowa caucuses last year, Donald Trump Jr. said in the 2016 election that Donald Trump asked people to put a bet on him and that bet is being fulfilled through his actions.

“In 2016, he asked them to take a chance on him,” Donald Trump Jr. said. “He said specifically, ‘What do you have to lose?’ At that time, the answer, the real answer, was nothing, despite the fact that he got criticism for saying that. But the reality was, both sides had failed the American voters. Now he comes back, and he says, ‘I said I was gonna do this, I said I was gonna do that.’”

To end the night, Brad Parscale, Donald Trump’s campaign manager, thanked those present in Des Moines for the win.

“I want to thank a lot of people tonight. This was about organization; this is about the structure we built,” Parscale said. “We are back across the starting line again, and I think this was a great test, and nothing like the president would like more on the first night we set a record.”