How DeSantis and Haley see their potential paths to beating Trump

The 2024 presidential race officially kicked off on Monday night with Iowa's Republican caucuses — and the results reaffirmed what polling has shown for months: Many, if not all, GOP voters still favor former President Donald Trump as their White House pick.

Trump got 51% of the vote in the caucuses, about 30 points ahead of rivals Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley.

But the Florida governor and former U.N. ambassador have both promised to keep their campaigns going in the coming weeks. «This is a marathon, not a sprint,» Haley said on Tuesday.

Polls have long indicated she and DeSantis have a steep hill to climb in competing with Trump across the rest of the 2024 primary race. Still, they have each laid out what they believe their paths are to potential victory.

Here's a look at what those paths might be.

Despite his double-digit loss to Trump in Iowa, DeSantis came in second behind the former president — which his campaign touted as a sign of traction with voters.

«They threw everything at Ron DeSantis. They couldn’t kill him. He is not only still standing, but he’s now earned his ticket out of Iowa,» a senior campaign official said in a statement to reporters. «This is going to be a long battle ahead, but that is what this campaign is built for. The stakes are too high for this nation and we will not back down.»

But as DeSantis' leaves behind Iowa, the state in which he invested substantial time and resources, and often boasted of eventually winning, he next looks to New Hampshire's primary on Tuesday and then South Carolina's primary on Feb. 24.

DeSantis' standing in New Hampshire polls has crumbled, according to 538, so while it's customary for candidates to head there after Iowa, DeSantis is taking a bit of a detour to South