Priebus: Iowa turnout shows GOP has ‘electrified’ country
Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Reince Priebus says the turnout for Monday’s Iowa GOP caucuses shows that the Republican race has captured the nation’s attention.
“It was a big night,” Priebus told host Fox News’ Bill Hemmer on Tuesday. “We have a lot of drama and intrigue in our party right now, but it has the whole country electrified.
{mosads}“[About] 150,000 [voters] was the mark that we started with, and we thought it would be much higher than that,” he added. “Obviously it was, [and] we were fairly accurate with the number.”
Priebus said the Democrats can’t find similar enthusiasm after control of the White House for the last eight years.
“It’s hard to predict the future, but if you look at history and eight years of an incumbent president from one particular party, you do get sort of a lackluster feeling on the ground from the party that’s been in power for a long time,” he said.
“We went through it in 2008 and obviously the Democrats went through it in 1999 and 2000. Clearly, the history would show that we have a natural advantage heading into a general race here in 2016.”
The RNC chief added that Monday’s result should be worrisome for Democrats.
“That just goes to show you the weakness of Hillary Clinton,” he said. “The fact that a first lady, secretary of State and senator can’t put down a gadfly from Vermont — it’s a total disaster for Hillary Clinton.”
Clinton was declared the winner over rival Bernie Sanders with a slim a 0.2 percentage point margin.
Republican candidate Ted Cruz won the GOP’s Iowa caucuses by 3 percent over Donald Trump.
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