According to CNN projections, Texas Senator Ted Cruz has won the Iowa Republican caucuses, defeating the longstanding party front-runner Donald Trump.
With only 84 percent of Iowa precincts reporting, several news outlets announced Cruz as the projected winner with 27.7 percent of the votes, followed by Donald Trump with 24.4 percent and Marco Rubio with 23 percent of the votes.
Cruz’s win is mostly an upset for real-estate mogul Donald Trump, who entered Monday night’s caucuses in the lead, according to an Iowa poll.
“We will go on to get the republican nomination,” Donald Trump told a crowd of supporters in Iowa after the projections were made, “and we will go on to beat Hillary or Bernie or whoever they put up there.”
Trump remained positive during his speech, thanking his family and telling the Iowans that he will be back to the state soon.
On the Democratic side the numbers were a lot closer. With only 89 percent of the precincts reporting in Iowa, Hillary Clinton garnered 49.8 percent of the votes and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders trailed close behind with 49.6 percent. News outlets have said the race is too close to call at the time this article was published.
Cruz is expected to address a crowd of supporters in Des Moines, Iowa later on Monday night. The candidates will face-off in eight days for the New Hampshire primary peiod.
