Trump campaign dumps Iowa staffer after one-vote defeat in Johnson County

Former President Donald Trump's path to the GOP presidential nomination has been a smooth one thus far, but despite winning 98 out of 99 Iowa counties in that state's caucuses earlier this month, there was one campaign staffer whose professional fate was not quite as rosy, as the Washington Examiner explains.

After losing historically blue Johnson County by a single vote, Trump's regional director responsible for operations in that jurisdiction was unceremoniously dumped by the campaign once the results were clear.

Narrow defeat leads to firing

Trump notched a historic performance in Iowa, almost achieving a clean sweep of every single county in the state.

However, it was in Johnson County that rival Nikki Haley triumphed, garnering 1,271 votes to the 1,270 received by Trump.

Despite the miniscule difference in the final tally and his dominance in every other corner of the state, Trump was apparently none too pleased with what happened in that particular jurisdiction, as evidenced by what came next.

No seat for you

When the campaign team departed by private plane back to New York on the night of the caucuses, the regional director who oversaw the Johnson County result was not offered a seat, as the New York Times noted.

Sources familiar with what occurred further asserted that it was the very next morning that the director was informed by her supervisor that her contract with the campaign had ended.

When asked for comment about the staffer's status and rumors of her dismissal, the Trump campaign did not offer an immediate response.

Historic triumphs

Regardless of what went down in Johnson County, Trump, to date, as had historic success in the primary season thus far.

By winning Iowa by a large margin and moving onto a victory in New Hampshire, Trump became the first non-incumbent to win those contests in back-to-back fashion, as Axios noted.

Now that Trump and Haley have turned their attention to the upcoming primary in South Carolina, pressure is mounting for the former U.N. Ambassador to bow out and help the party coalesce around the clear front runner.

Though Haley has expressed a stubborn reluctance to exit the race, calls from party leaders and high-dollar donors to do just that may soon prove too difficult to refuse.