It will be necessary for Haley to increase her margins of victory over DeSantis in an Iowa county
where she has recently lost her advantage in order for her to arrive at the finish line in second position, ahead of DeSantis.
Story County has reported around 96% of the projected vote, which has Haley in second place behind Trump by 134 votes and in first place behind DeSantis by slightly more than 100 votes.
Located to the north of Des Moines, Story County is a region that leans more toward the Democratic Party
Ames, which is the location of Iowa State University, is included in this region, which has a history of supporting more moderate Republican candidates in previous caucuses. Senator Marco Rubio won all five counties in the state eight years ago, and this was one of them.
Haley, who has been courting voters who are more moderate, needed to perform well in this kind of county if she was going to be able to surpass DeSantis in the state of Florida.
With Story reporting its votes somewhat more slowly than nearby counties, Haley was in the lead in Story for a significant portion of the night. However, this was mostly due to the fact that Story was reporting its votes. Not at that rare is this: In the state of Iowa, precincts that are larger and have a higher population take longer to count their votes and, as a result, report them
Smaller precincts, which are likewise more likely to vote for candidates who are more conservative, are able to tally votes more quickly and publish their results quicker. During the first two hours of the caucus, there were just 221 votes reported, and Haley maintained her lead until a little after 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time.