Every four years, Iowa is briefly catapulted to the very center of the political universe, as it opens the race for the White House in an election year.
Republicans have voted for whoever they want to represent the party against Democratic President Joseph Biden in the November presidential election.
The first stop in that race is Iowa, which likes to do things a little differently than other states.
For starters, the voting there is called a "caucus."
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Iowa is the first state-by-state contest in which Republican voters choose a candidate for the White House.
Donald Trump won a landslide victory in the Iowa caucuses, cementing his position as the clear favorite for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
In a speech to supporters in Iowa, Trump said he wanted to "fix the world's problems."
What is a caucus?
Most states organize primaries, preliminary elections to nominate a party's presidential candidate, but caucuses have a different, and more complicated, process.
The primaries are a kind of mini-election.
Voters cast their ballots in person, in person or by mail, throughout Election Day.
Caucuses instead require party members to show up at a specific location, in person, at a specific time.
In schools, local communities and churches across the state, candidates' representatives give speeches before members present vote by write-in.
Most states have switched from caucuses to primaries, but Iowa's Republican Party — along with those in Nevada, Idaho, Missouri, North Dakota, Hawaii, Wyoming and Kentucky — still adhere to the old system.
Who were the candidates and who won?
The Republican battleground has come down to four main candidates: former President Donald Trump, Florida Governor Ron Desantis, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
Former Arkansas Gov. Ace Hutchinson was also in the running, while New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie dropped out of the race a week ago.
It was probably the least surprising victory in Iowa primary history.
Donald Trump won the first contest in the Republican presidential race by a landslide, with the margin ultimately comfortable, just as polls had predicted for months.
Neither of Trump's main rivals, Nikki Haley or Ron Desantis, emerged as his primary challenger, so the non-Trump vote remained split.
Meanwhile, his most ideologically similar rival, Vivek Ramswamy, announced he was dropping out and would support Trump in New Hampshire on Tuesday.
Trump's victory in Iowa was historically significant.
He won by a landslide, with the most votes in all but one of Iowa's 99 counties (the other lost by one vote).
No one had ever won an election in Iowa by such a landslide.
With nearly all votes counted, Trump won 51 percent, Desantis 21 percent, and Haley 19 percent.
Why is the Iowa caucus so important?
The prize Republicans are actually fighting for in Iowa is minimal.
The candidates will split 41 delegates, just over 1 percent of the total up for grabs at the Republican National Convention in July.
But a victory for either candidate in Iowa could give his campaign a boost in a crucial early stage and potentially propel him to victory in the primary.
This was also the first time that the country could make sure that the candidate was listed in the real elections and that he gained significant attention in the media.
Former President Donald Trump has dominated the Republican arena since announcing his candidacy in November 2022.
His rivals have had trouble eroding his support among the party's increasingly populist base.
Republican pollster Whit Ayers told the BBC that "survival and momentum" will be key for Trump's opponents in the race.
"Donors want to support the winner. If you can't get the votes, you can't get the money."
Polls have partially declined.
Trump (77) had a convincing lead in the polls over his closest rivals in Iowa.
The last survey of the Republican race there determined him as the first choice of 48 percent of the most likely participants of the caucus.
Haley was second with 20 percent, while Desantis fell to third place, with 16 percent.
Why is Trump's victory historic?
Trump's dominant position in the Republican Party is indisputable, but his victory in Iowa, in the broader context of modern American politics, is remarkable.
Two years, 22 months and 25 days ago, he ended his first term as president under a cloud of controversy, and his efforts to challenge his loss to Democratic nominee Joseph Biden culminated in a riot at the Capitol on January 6.
Because of this, Trump faces two criminal trials.
Now, as the winner of the Iowa primary, he has taken the first significant step toward becoming the Republican Party's nominee for president in November.
Trump still has work to do to become the Republican standard-bearer.
He will face a more serious challenge next week in New Hampshire, where polls show his once-dominant lead has dwindled to near single digits.
But he is still the biggest favorite in the race, which was confirmed in the first test.
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Can Iowa Voting Predict the Overall Winner?
Iowa has a pretty bad history of picking the eventual nominee - especially when it comes to picking Republicans.
Donald Trump is the best proof of that.
He came in second in Iowa in 2016, trailing evangelical Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
None of Trump's predecessors as nominees of the Republican Party won in that state.
Moreover, George W. Bush is the last non-returning Republican president to win both the state and the nomination in 2000.
Ayers told the BBC that Iowa's difficulty in selecting candidates reflects how its population is "completely different to most of the rest of the country".
“There are far more evangelicals on the Republican side than there are nationally. On the Democratic side, there are almost no African-Americans in Iowa," he noted, noting that this group is the backbone of the Democratic electoral coalition.
Why Democratic Partydon't organizee caucus in January?
This year, Democrats decided to prioritize states with a more racially diverse makeup than Iowa, which is predominantly white.
Instead, the party's campaign will begin in South Carolina on February 3 and Nevada on February 6.
And so Iowa voters will send in their mail-in ballots, which will be counted on March 5.
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