Next up, New Hampshire: Where the race for the GOP nomination stands after Iowa

For more than a year, former President Donald Trump has been seen as the overwhelming front-runner for the Republican nomination.

It's not just because of polls. The party apparatus still seemed to be deferential to Trump. He has the most endorsements — by far. And few Republicans are willing to criticize his conduct.

Trump's decisive win in Iowa on Monday further cemented his standing in the party.

There are many more ballots to be counted before a Republican presidential nominee is declared, but a week away from the nation's first primary in New Hampshire, Trump's rivals are facing uniquely long odds.

The candidates who were most critical of Trump — former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson, the former Arkansas governor — have dropped out. Both directly took on Trump for his conduct, and both never really stood a chance at the nomination.

"I would rather lose by telling the truth than lie in order to win," Christie said when he bowed out of the race a week ago. "And I feel no differently today because this is a fight for the soul of our party and the soul of our country."

After getting just 0.2% of the vote in Iowa Monday, Hutchinson also announced in a statement that he, too, was waving the white flag.

"My message of being a principled Republican with experience and telling the truth about the current front-runner did not sell in Iowa," Hutchinson said. "I stand by the campaign I ran."

There are some who believed in those principles in Iowa. In addition to the 191 people who voted for Hutchinson, 29 others braved sub-zero temperatures in Iowa to caucus for Christie, even after he'd dropped out.

In fairness, Iowa was never really a focus of Christie's, but the lack of support for the two most vocally