Iowa Republicans rally behind now-official nominee

CLEVELAND - It's official. The Donald is The Nominee.

Cheering, reveling delegates to the Republican National Convention - including 30 from Iowa - did something Tuesday night that many did not envision when Iowa kicked off the presidential selection process six months ago - nominating New York billionaire Donald Trump and putting to rest 'Dump Trump” rumblings.

In the caucuses, Iowans showed their support for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz over Trump, but in Cleveland they found themselves giving the nod to a candidate who emerged from one of the most nontraditional campaigns in modern history to land a majority of delegates.

'If you had told me a year ago that Donald Trump was going to be our nominee, I would have said, no, I don't think that's going to happen at all,” said Jeff Kaufmann, chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa. 'The bottom line is we listen to the people. The people decided.”

Iowa GOP convention delegation Chairman Matt Schultz cast all of Iowa's 30 votes for Trump during Tuesday's roll call in which the New York candidate topped the 1,237 delegates needed to seal the party's presidential nomination. Delegates ratified Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as Trump's running mate.

Convention delegate Randy Feenstra of Hull had backed Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and switched to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz when Walker dropped out of the race. Tuesday, he was among the 30 Iowans on the arena floor who cast votes for Trump.

'The process worked,” he said. 'It came that Trump got the most, so he has to be our nominee.”

Feenstra said he believes Trump would bring the best business pedigree to the White House of 'any president we've ever seen” and will be 'a new face to that office” who will surround himself with good, qualified people like his choice of Pence.

U.S. Rep. Steve King, a Kiron Republican who brought Trump to Iowa in October 2014 for a fundraiser and again in January 2015 for the Iowa Freedom Summit but backed Cruz in the 2016 Iowa caucuses, said Tuesday he's still not ready to endorse Trump, but noted 'I'm closer.”

'The selection of Mike Pence for VP brings it quite a long ways,” said King, who served in the U.S. House with the Indiana Republican.

'He is a fiscal hawk. He's a committed full-spectrum constitutional conservative and a wholesome man with a wholesome family. I think it's a terrific addition to the Trump ticket,” King noted. 'This is getting better. We'll see how it unfolds.”

'There are a lot of people who Donald Trump wasn't their first choice. He wasn't my first choice. But he has exceeded all expectations,” Gov. Terry Branstad said Tuesday.

'At the Iowa State Fair last year, I said, well, this isn't going to last. Well, it has. He's attracted a lot of new people,” said the six-term governor, who noted a record 187,000 Iowans flocked to the GOP caucuses last February. 'That tells me that Donald Trump has attracted new people.Eric Branstad, the governor's oldest son who this week was named state director for Trump's Iowa campaign, said: 'The lion is about to be unleashed,” with an expectation that both Trump and Pence will make campaign stops in Iowa before the election.

State Sen. Brad Zaun, an Urbandale Republican who got on board with Trump early, said he thinks the New York outsider has 'a very, very good chance to win Iowa as well as a lot of other states that are traditionally not favorable to Republicans.”