PHOENIX — Here are five Arizona takeaways from former President Donald Trump's resounding victory in the Iowa caucuses, the first litmus test for Republican presidential candidates:
VERSIÓN EN ESPAÑOL: 'Sera una gran senadora’: Trump parece salpicar especulaciones de que Lake sería su compañera en la contienda presidencial
Trump's first Arizona visit
Trump will be making his first 2024 campaign stop in Arizona on Friday, Jan. 26, ahead of the state Republican Party's annual meeting on Saturday, Jan. 27.
The location will be Dream City Church in north Phoenix, the site of a Trump rally during the height of the COVID pandemic in June 2020.
The church is embedded in the GOP. Dream City's religious school has partnered with Turning Point USA, the far-right organization that has championed Trump and U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake, as a "Turning Point Academy."
Trump's two primary opponents, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, have not made any public campaign appearances in Arizona.
'Gonna be a great senator'
Trump appeared to squelch speculation that he would select former Phoenix TV news anchor Kari Lake as his vice-presidential running mate.
Lake, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Arizona after losing the 2022 race for governor, was in her home state of Iowa as a Trump surrogate.
During his victory speech Monday night, Trump pointed to Lake in the crowd and said: "She's terrific. She's gonna be a senator, a great senator, I predict, right? Gonna be a great senator."
Lake responded on social media: "Thank you for the nice shout out, President Trump. Thank you, Iowa, for setting America back on the right trajectory.
I'm so proud to be an American tonight."
Lake faces Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb in the Republican Senate primary in August.
Will Arizona matter in March?
Arizona's primary is just nine weeks away. Will Republican voters here still matter or will Trump have the GOP presidential nomination sewn up by then?
On the Democratic side, President Joe Biden faces token primary opposition in the March 19 Presidential Preference Election - as the state primary is known.
The Republican race is now a three-person contest post-Iowa.
Jon Seaton, a veteran of presidential campaigns for George W. Bush and John McCain, made the case for Arizona's vote not making a difference.
"It's hard to find a poll in any state across the country in the Republican primary where the former president isn't winning, and in some cases, winning handily," Seaton said in an interview.
But McCain's campaigns provide lessons for why Arizona could matter in two months.
"We need to look no further than Senator McCain's run for president in 2002 and 2008, when the result of one primary ... changes the trajectory of the entire race," Seaton said.
That was the New Hampshire primary, where the state's famously flinty voters get their say next Tuesday.
This year, New Hampshire is the only early primary state where polling shows Haley within 20 points of Trump.
A strong Haley showing could give her campaign oxygen -- and donor support -- as she heads into the heart of the primary season.
DeSantis headed straight to Haley's home state of South Carolina after his second-place finish in Iowa. The primary there is a month away, on Feb. 24.
It's all about delegate math - and money
Here's how the primary calendar and the delegate math shape up through Arizona in mid-March, according to data compiled by CNN:
The Republican presidential nominee needs to claim more than 50% of the delegates awarded in caucuses and primaries, which run through June.
The first-in-the-nation Iowa caucus awards just 1.6% of all GOP delegates.
New Hampshire's primary next week will bring the total delegates awarded to 2.5%.
The big delegate haul comes in March, starting with Super Tuesday, March 5.
Fourteen states vote that day. The total delegates awarded jumps to 47%.
Primaries in four states on March 12, will push the total delegate count past the 50% threshold.
After primaries on March 19 in Arizona; DeSantis' home state of Florida; Illinois; and Ohio, 68% of the total delegates will have been accounted for.
It's conceivable that by March 19 or sooner, delegate math giving Trump a commanding lead, combined with DeSantis' or Haley's flagging financial support, could make the presidential nomination a foregone conclusion.
If you plan to vote
If you plan to vote in Arizona's PPE on March 19, you need to know that it's a closed election.
Only registered Republicans and Democrats are eligible to vote.
Registered independents have to re-register with one of the parties in order to cast a ballot in the election.
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