Record turnouts for Wright Republican caucus; Wright Democrats gain new members

Wright County caucus attendance followed the statewide trends of record-breaking numbers of Republican caucusers, and generally high, but not record-breaking, attendance for Democrats. According to the Republican party of Iowa, 186,000 voted on caucus night. The Iowa Democratic Party reported 171,517 voters statewide, lower than their approximately 227,000 turnout in 2008.

The Wright Republican caucus had an unofficial voter count of 607, beating the 2012 caucus’s record, which was less than 500. All precincts met at the Goldfield school building, filling the gymnasium with caucusers before they broke into separate precincts. Cruz received the most votes, 190. Donald Trump received the second-highest amount with 129, closely followed by Marco Rubio with 124. This tallies fairly well with statewide votes of 51,666 for Cruz, 45,429 for Trump, and 43,228 for Rubio.

Nancy Duitscher, member of the Wright Democratic Party, said that the party had approximately 50 new members registered with about 130 attendees total for the Clarion precincts, which she considered a good turnout, though it was lower than the 2008 caucus attendance. Though all the Democratic precincts hadn’t gathered their votes together at the time Duitscher spoke, media outlets reported that Hillary Clinton received 273 votes in Wright County and Bernie Sanders received 226. This means that Clinton won by a slightly higher margin in Wright County than her very slim statewide lead.

 

For more local news, see the February 11 edition of the Monitor.

 

Wright County Monitor

P.O. Box 153
Clarion, IA 50525
Phone: 515-532-2871
Email: news@wrightcountymonitor.com

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