Former President Donald Trump looks unstoppable in his quest for the Republican nomination for president in 2024.

His big victory in the Iowa Republican caucuses last Monday was convincing.  Important Republicans are rallying around him – Cruz, Rubio, Ramaswamy, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, dozens of U.S. senators and members of Congress and Republican Party officials in Colorado.

Trump’s faithful disciples like U.S. Reps. Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene joined him in Iowa.

Virtually no new endorsements have been announced for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley or Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. That is telling.

Trump won about 51% of the Iowa vote. DeSantis was in second place with approximately 21% and Haley a close-third behind DeSantis with some 19%.

Ron DeSantis has essentially pulled out of New Hampshire. DeSantis has spent little time or money in the state.

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We predicted Trump would get about 45% to 60% in Iowa, so his 51% finish fell within those parameters. We said Ron DeSantis would have to finish second for his campaign to survive for a few more weeks, and he accomplished that – barely.

We hinted Haley might pull an Iowa surprise and come in second, but she narrowly missed that and came in a close-third to DeSantis. Not finishing second cost her. She got little or no boost from Iowa. That will probably hurt her in New Hampshire. The terrible weather hurt her in Iowa, plus a couple of costly gaffes.

It is uphill for Haley this week. DeSantis bet the farm on Iowa – and lost it. New Hampshire may prove to be the same kind of thing for Haley – a make-or-break state. If she does not finish in at least a close second place, she will be a wounded candidate and will have trouble raising money for the big Super Tuesday races on March 5.

It is the details of the Iowa caucuses results that give such a boost to Trump. He won all of Iowa’s 99 counties except for the one that contains the state university. Trump’s 51% of the vote was the highest ever scored by a candidate in the Iowa caucuses who was not an incumbent president. And he won just about every demographic.

Then Ramaswamy, who finished fourth in Iowa, with about 8%, abandoned his campaign for the Republican nomination and threw his support to Trump. Most Ramaswamy voters were already Trump supporters.

Stepping back and taking a larger view, we are dismayed the votes of 110,000 Iowans may have determined the Republican nominee for president in a nation of 332 million people. We have been critical of the caucuses-primaries presidential nominating system in use in the United States and see the 2024 Iowa Republican caucuses as a prime example of its faults.

Think about it: The total number of Iowa Republican caucuses voters was about the same size as west Colorado Springs. Should such a small number of voters have such a large impact on a continent-wide nation? And with no other states getting to cast a vote that helps determine the winner?

There are a few last remaining rays of hope for anti-Trumpers. Just about half (49%) of Iowa Republican caucuses goers voted for someone other than Trump. Pollsters tell us Trump has a solid base but there is a cap on that base that prevents him from gaining further support up to a majority. There is also the possibility of the effects of one or more court convictions for Trump in the many court cases filed against him.

But the best hope for anti-Trumpers comes in the New Hampshire Republican primary to be held two days from now. Trump’s biggest problem will be New Hampshire is different political ground from Iowa.

Iowa is heavily rural and agricultural and filled with evangelical voters with a conservative bent. Much of New Hampshire, on the other hand, is akin to a northern suburb of the greater Boston region. It is more well-educated and urbanized and international in its political outlook. New Hampshire voters are less likely to be attracted to Trump’s more isolationist views of American foreign policy.

New Hampshire looks like fertile ground for an old-style Republican internationalist such as Haley. If she has a chance to make a gain in the 2024 round of caucuses and primaries, it might and probably must be in the New Hampshire Republican primary.

Colorado and New Hampshire have some things in common. Both are mountain states. Colorado has its high snowcapped Rockies, and New Hampshire has its tree-covered Appalachians. Both states are home to ski resorts. Both states have a high percentage of college grads. Most Coloradans live in suburbs or suburban-style cities on the populous Front Range, just as most New Hampshirites are outer-Boston suburban.

But the most important thing that New Hampshire and Colorado have in common is New Hampshire permits its primary voters to register unaffiliated, just like Colorado does. And New Hampshire’s unaffiliated voters have the choice to vote in either the Democratic or the Republican presidential primary, also as in Colorado.

Colorado’s presidential primary is six weeks from now on Tuesday, March 5, 2024. That is “Super Tuesday,” when about 15 states hold presidential primaries and caucuses all on the same day.

Unaffiliated voters in New Hampshire in the past have split up evenly with half voting in the Democratic primary and the other half voting in the Republican primary. That is not going to happen in 2024. The leading Democratic candidate is incumbent President Joe Biden, who has no serious opposition for the Democratic nomination.

We assume, therefore, most unaffiliated voters in New Hampshire will choose to vote in the Republican contest between Trump, DeSantis and Haley. But, as noted, DeSantis has essentially checked out of New Hampshire.

We assume further this block of unaffiliated voters will prefer the more moderate Haley to Trump. If there is a last hope for Haley, it is for her to win unaffiliated voters in New Hampshire, notch a narrow win in the New Hampshire Republican primary, and have a chance of continuing in the race for the Republican nomination.

If Haley can win the unaffiliated vote in New Hampshire, that could give those of us in Colorado a hint as to how unaffiliated voters in Colorado might vote in the Republican presidential primary on Super Tuesday. They might vote for Haley, giving her a Colorado victory.

One last point: Haley and DeSantis deserve great credit for presenting Republicans a choice in these early weeks of the 2024 election. Neither was a perfect candidate, but both learned the issues and campaigned hard. Haley has done it, remarkably, while her husband has been deployed abroad in military service. Both have had to endure the typical mean-spirited insults and name calling by the former president. Politics is a rough profession and these two alternatives merit our thanks.

Tom Cronin has written extensively on the American presidency. Bob Loevy has written about the presidential nominating system in the United States and its flaws.