The latest on the Iowa caucuses and 2024 primary campaign

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced Tuesday he is suspending his presidential campaign after a weak showing in the Iowa caucuses on Monday night.

"My message of being a principled Republican with experience and telling the truth about the current front runner did not sell in Iowa. I stand by the campaign I ran. I answered every question, sounded the warning to the GOP about the risks in 2024 and presented hope for our country’s future. Susan and I are blessed beyond measure, and we are grateful for the opportunity to have fought in the political arena for America,” he added.

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu on Tuesday downplayed Nikki Haley's third-place finish in Iowa and laid out an expectation for a "strong second" in New Hampshire — suggesting she could even surpass that and clinch the GOP primary on January 23.

Sununu, who endorsed Haley last month, told Fox News in an interview he didn't think there was any "higher expectation" than Haley's third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses.

"She was challenging Ron (DeSantis) for second when Ron put everything he had into Iowa. Ron hasn't been in New Hampshire in a month," he said. He added that Haley is "challenging to actually beat Donald Trump" in the Granite State, where he claimed she was "within single digits."

As Haley has tried to consolidate a broad anti-Trump coalition in New Hampshire, where undeclared voters can vote in the GOP primary, Sununu concurred that the number of Democrats who had changed their party registration by the October 6 deadline to be able to vote for a Republican was "not significant at all."

Winning individual primaries and caucuses is just one step in the long path to winning a party’s presidential nomination.

How does the Republican Party pick a presidential candidate, in a nutshell? Both parties hold conventions in the summer where delegates technically select the nominee. The process and rules are different for each party, but the primaries are about winning enough delegates to secure the nomination. There are different kinds of nominating contests and different kinds of delegates in a calendar that stretches from January to June, so keeping track of the delegate math can get complicated.

What is a delegate? Performing well in primaries and caucuses equals delegates, and the larger goal is amassing the magic number of delegates to secure a nomination before delegate voting at the party convention.

How many delegates are there? Whoever wins the GOP nomination needs to win at least 1,215 out of 2,429 delegates awarded as part of the primary process. In years without an incumbent, like Republicans are experiencing in 2024, the winner frequently does not hit the magic number until May or even June. In 2016, in his first of three White House runs, Donald Trump hit the magic number on May 26.

But if Trump’s lead in polls holds up during early primaries, he could wrap things up much earlier.

Keep reading here about how Republicans select their nominee.

After coming in third place in the Iowa caucuses, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley is looking ahead to New Hampshire, where she argues she's a "stone's throw away" from front-runner Donald Trump.

Haley implied she wouldn't make any major changes in her approach to campaigning, saying she would continue "doing what we've done for 11 months."

"It's paid off. It's why we're a stone's throw away from Trump," in New Hampshire, she said.

The former South Carolina governor called her campaign the "last best hope of stopping the Trump-Biden nightmare."

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said on Tuesday that the next debate she will participate in will be either with former President Donald Trump or President Joe Biden, suggesting she will not accept invitations to either of the New Hampshire debates this week. 

ABC News is set to hold a GOP primary debate at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, on January 18, followed by CNN’s debate on January 21 at New England College in Henniker.

Trump and Haley's campaigns were given a 5 p.m. deadline Tuesday to commit to the January 18 debate, according to an ABC News spokesperson.

"We will update our plans accordingly," the spokesperson said.

Haley previously said during a tele-town hall that she would make a decision on her participation on the New Hampshire debate stage following the Iowa results.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has accepted invitations to participate in both ABC and CNN's debates.

CNN's Ali Main contributed reporting.

Donald Trump demonstrated Monday night that it’s still his Republican Party. The former president won the Iowa Republican caucuses by an unprecedented margin, kickstarting his bid to win his party’s third consecutive presidential nomination. He did so despite skipping the GOP primary debates and eschewing the retail politicking grind typically demanded by Hawkeye State voters.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis edged out former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for a distant second-place finish — though the nominating contest now shifts to New Hampshire, where polls show Haley in a much stronger position in next week’s primary.

Here are some key takeaways from the Iowa GOP caucuses:

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley released a new ad Tuesday in New Hampshire, pitching herself as the better alternative candidate to both former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden.

The ad, named "Better Choice," features the former South Carolina governor again emphasizing the need for "a new generation of conservative leadership." 

"I have a different style and approach. I’ll fix our economy, close our border, and strengthen the cause of freedom," Haley says in the ad.

The 30-second slot echoes Haley's speech on caucus night, in which she told the crowd she is "the last best hope of stopping the Trump-Biden rematch."

The ad will run statewide on broadcast, cable and digital platforms.

“Trump and Biden are the two most-disliked politicians in the country" Haley spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas said in a press release. "There’s a better choice, and that choice is Nikki Haley."

The Republican presidential candidates are all vying to take on President Joe Biden in November 2024. But first, they’re competing in the GOP primaries and caucuses, which begin in January, to emerge as the party’s nominee.

The first event of the Republican primary calendar —the Iowa caucuses — took place Monday. Next up, is the New Hampshire primary.

Here's a look at upcoming key primary dates:

January:

February:

March:

Access the full 2024 election calendar.

The Iowa caucuses, the first on the presidential primary calendar, serve as a test for a candidate's electability after months on the campaign trail. A strong showing can give a campaign momentum — or stall it out.

Still, recent history shows that winning the Iowa caucuses does not guarantee success during the rest of the primaries, or in the general election in November. The last few candidates to win Iowa ultimately did not become president.