Donald Trump needed to win Iowa.

He didn’t.

He threw everything he could at Ted Cruz, including Sarah Palin, the former vice presidential nominee who endorsed the mogul over the Texas senator. Trump viciously questioned Cruz’s right to run for president because he was born in Canada and called him an “anchor baby.’’

It wasn’t enough to derail the rival who called himself the true conservative in the race and slammed Trump as a flip-flopping fraud.

On caucus night, Cruz was the winner. The businessman with the “New York values’’ was the loser.

In his concession speech, Trump went out quietly, declaring his love for Iowa and congratulating a winner who was not named Trump. Now he has to find a way to become one.

Trump’s decision to bail out of last week’s Fox News debate may have been the turning point in the caucus race. The debate spotlight was on Cruz and Marco Rubio. Minus Trump on the stage, the two battled it out on issues. It was an impressive enough encounter to allow Rubio to finish just behind Trump in Iowa. With his third-place finish, Rubio gave a speech that made him sound like the number one winner.

In Iowa, the voters finally started answering the question the media couldn’t: Is @realDonaldTrump for real? In Trump’s first test, actual votes didn’t come close to his poll numbers. Now he has to show his poll numbers in other states are something more than illusion. And he will have to answer another question: If he can’t win Iowa, where can he win?

For Republicans and Democrats, the battle now is joined in New Hampshire.

The politics are even more complicated for Democrats. Sanders came as close as he could to beating Hillary Clinton. They finished in a virtual tie, so the fight for the soul of the Democratic party goes on.

To Sanders’ benefit, Granite State voters like neighbors who run for president — neighbors like Michael Dukakis, Paul Tsongas, and John Kerry.

Sanders, the senator from Vermont, is another New Hampshire neighbor, and polls show him beating Clinton there now. If he does win in New Hampshire next week, this socialist calling for revolution and an open check book still must chart a path after that to the Democratic Party nomination. That’s when the territory turns to the South and the culture is tilted more toward a political establishment represented by Clinton. Or so goes the conventional political wisdom.

For Clinton, Iowa’s results clearly showed her vulnerabilities. Polling of caucus-goers showed that Sanders had the upper hand on key issues such as trust and who cares about regular people. Clinton, meanwhile, is the choice of 88 percent when the question comes down to who has the right experience to be president.

But her superior experience was not enough to make half the caucus-goers choose Clinton over Sanders. They were looking for something more. And that is Clinton’s fundamental problem.

Now, in New Hampshire, what will Sanders do to exploit those vulnerabilities? So far, he has run a campaign of issues. He attacked Wall Street and the big banks — not Clinton. He famously gave her a pass during a debate when he declared that nobody cares about her “damn e-mails.’’ He made young hearts and old hippie hearts flutter with an ad of pretty pictures set to Simon & Garfunkel harmony.

Does he turn negative? Does the Democratic race take on the darker elements of the Republican race?

The next chapter of this amazing race for the White House begins now.

Joan Vennochi can be reached at vennochi@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @Joan_Vennochi.