2 winners and 3 losers from Iowa

What the results say about the shape of the rest of the race

Democratic candidates.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Win McNamee/Getty Images, Joe Raedle/Getty Images, Justin Sullivan/Getty Images, Scott Olson/Getty Images)

After one of the most excruciating, self-inflicted election fiascos in modern political memory is now almost-but-not-quite over, we do finally, sort of have a winner of the Iowa caucuses. Or, more precisely, we have two winners and three very clear losers.

Former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders are, on balance, better off than they were before the first voters filed into their precincts. Former Vice President Joe Biden, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and the Iowa caucuses themselves, on the other hand, got owned.

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David Faris

David Faris is an associate professor of political science at Roosevelt University and the author of It's Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics. He is a frequent contributor to Informed Comment, and his work has appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and Indy Week.