Ted Cruz wins US Republican caucuses as Clinton breathes sigh of relief

The evangelical vote allowed Ted Cruz to pull off a victory in the Republican caucuses in Iowa over Donald Trump that seemed unlikely less than a week ago.

After 99 per cent of precincts had reported in the first state to decide on the Republican candidate for the US presidential election in November, the rookie senator Cruz had nearly 28 per cent of the vote while Trump had 24 per cent.

Cruz won about a third of the evangelical vote, which makes up almost 70 per cent of the Republican vote in Iowa.

Cruz also earned the support of 4 in 10 “very conservative” voters in the state, a group which made up 40 per cent of the electorate according to preliminary entrance poll data published in the Washington Post.

Trump was in ebullient mood despite being pushed into second place.

"We will go on to get the Republican nomination and we will go on to easily beat Hillary or Bernie," Trump told supporters. "We finished second, and I have to say I am just honoured."

Marco Rubio, 44, also came very close to pushing Trump into third place with 23 per cent of the vote with 98 per cent of precincts reported. The junior senator from Florida also campaigned heavilty to woo the evangelical vote in the state, leaning subtly on his Roman Catholic faith.

"This is the moment they said would never happen. For months, they told us we had no chance," a jubilant Rubio said. "They told me that I needed to wait my turn, that I needed to wait in line. But tonight here in Iowa, the people of this great state have sent a very clear message — after seven years of Barack Obama, we are not waiting any longer to take our country back."

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton admitted to “breathing a hugh sigh of relief” after narrowly beating Bernie Sanders in what the Vermont senator called a “virtual tie” in the Democratic caucuses in Iowa. Clinton, with just one precinct left to declare, had 49.9 per cent of the vote, while Sanders had 49.6 per cent of ther vote.

Democratic maverick Bernie Sanders pushes presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton to the wire in Iowa

The result was a narrow win claimed by Clinton’s advisors and a relief for the former Secretary of State who is the overwhelming favourite to be the next US president. But it is unclear whether Sanders can maintain his momentum after his likely victory in the next caucuses in New Hampshire. the following raft of states after New Hampshire are southern states in which Clinton polls very strongly with the increasingly powerful African-American vote.

What has surprised so many commentators is the speed and strength of Sanders’s growth in popularity: a year ago a poll published in The Des Moines Register showed that 56 per cent of likely Democratic caucus participants favoured Clinton as their first choice for president. Just 5 per cent favored Sanders - well below a number of hopefuls who have long dropped out of the race. That gap had fallen to just 3 per cent days before the vote and is now paper thin.

Sanders considered the near tie a great accomplishment. “I think the people of Iowa have sent a very profound message to the political establishment, to the economic establishment and, by the way, to the media establishment,” Sanders told supporters.

Everyone's been talking about it: #Marcomentumhttps://t.co/MlWXrPoshy

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 1, 2016

Marco Rubio enjoyed a late surge in the caucuses yesterday

The third Democrat in the caucus former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley stood down his candidacy for the nomination after his eight-month intensive campaign in Iowa garnered just 8 votes - just over 0.5 per cent.

Meanwhile, in a crowded field of Republican candidates, the former US senator and devout Catholic Rick Santorum, who won the 2012 Republican caucuses in Iowa, told the De Moines Register that he was taking a beat to reassess his candidacy for the Republican nomination after receiving just 1 per cent of the vote.

With fewer votes than Santorum, Christian minister Mike Huckabee decided to end his campaign with a joke. The former Arkansas governor told supporters that he was ending the campaign because of illness: “Voters are sick of me,” he quipped.