With a crowded field on the Republican side, some candidates are likely to come out of the caucuses with minuscule support, and it may be hard for them to justify continuing in the race.

All of the Democratic contests award delegates in proportion to the vote, meaning you don't have to come in first to win some.

Following the precinct caucus, three tiers of conventions will be held, according to the Iowa Republican Party. He acknowledged that he needed a "strong showing" to remain competitive in the 2016 race.

For Republicans, it's all pretty simple as party members gather, hear brief speeches for candidates and then fill out ballots. Yet, people drove up to 75 miles in blinding snow to cast their vote to decide their party's nominee for president.

In Iowa, voters on Monday night will choose only 30 Republican delegates out of the roughly 2,400 that will attend the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this summer. Bernie Sanders, Clinton's main rival.

So how did candidates spend their final days reaching out to Iowa voters?

Winning Iowa may provide bragging rights (and a publicity boost) for candidates, but it doesn't always foreshadow who will win the party nomination.

"If you start in a big state with expensive media markets only the rich guys get to compete and that would be bad for Democracy".

Did we mention the Iowa caucus is the first in that nation?

Picture this: You're in your old middle school gym and you have to literally go stand in a certain corner if you want to vote for, say, Martin O'Malley. "No voting equipment is being used, and professional election administration officials are not managing the process", read the disclaimer added by the Associated Press four years ago to some of their caucus results coverage. Then, the candidate's representatives show up.

In the end, Iowa comes down to voter turnout (which is a dumb thing to say because literally every election comes down to voter turnout), which is predicted to be uncharacteristically low.

Does an Iowa victory guarantee a party nomination?

"It really encourages that retail politicking where you have candidates meet with Iowans one on one in different venues across the state", said Jeff Morgan, of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs.

The U.S. presidential contest has gone on for months, and still has months yet to go, but tonight is the first time that voters will actually weigh in.

George W. Bush and Barack Obama are the only non-incumbent candidates to win the Iowa Caucuses and go on to win the presidency in the past 40 years.

The Iowa caucuses start at 7 p.m. local time on Monday. It's a test of whether the celebrity businessman and political newcomer will be able to transform his record crowds into caucus-goers willing to...

Among Iowa Republicans, the worst-ever showing for an eventual nominee was fourth place (McCain in 2008).

So, the person who we call the "winner" on Caucus Night is the candidate who accrues the most state delegate equivalents, a number calculated using a ratio of state-to-county convention delegates.

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