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Marco Rubio was the surprise beneficiary of heavy GOP turnout and made the fight for evangelicals a three-way contest. Bernie Sanders won with younger voters, but not enough voted for him to win.

There was still big elephant not in the room ahead of tonight’s Fox News Iowa Republican debate: Donald Trump.

Many Republican voters didn’t necessarily agree with the decision to remove the Confederate battle flag from the state Capitol. They’re now worried it could mean the removal of more memorials.

Tea Party Republicans are trying to make a comeback and have found one candidate to get behind for the Senate in 2016 — Florida’s Ron DeSantis, a former JAG Corps lawyer and Yale baseball captain.

The Republican senator from Kentucky is getting a jump on what is likely to be a crowded GOP field in 2016. Polls show him in a three-way tie for third place for his party’s nomination.

Cruz has not been the buzz candidate so far in the GOP’s 2016 discussions — nor the media’s. In fact, he has seemed at times a bit of a faded rose, a skyrocket that has spent much of its sparkle.

When it comes to presidential politics, Iowa is where things all get started, long before most people realize the election season has begun. And like it or not, the race is on … if only on one side.

House Speaker John Boehner said approval of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline and the repeal of key parts of Obamacare are among Republicans’ top priorities.

Few saw the historic collapse coming, although the final tally shows Brat won handily, with 56 percent of the vote to Cantor’s 44 percent.

The state’s Libertarian Party is not so big. Its membership has hovered around 7,000 voters since the Division of Elections began tracking their registration in the late 1990s.