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Former President Trump has for months been the clear Republican presidential frontrunner. The first GOP voting contest showed why.

Trump got 51 percent of the vote in the Iowa caucuses on Monday, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis a distant second at 21 percent and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley third at 19 percent.

The massive win for Trump in the red state came even as another a generally pro-Trump candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, carried 8 percent of the vote. The biotech entrepreneur later dropped out and endorsed Trump.

The most vocal critics of Trump in the race barely registered support or dropped out before Iowa: former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called it quits last week, and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson got 0.2 percent.

The Hill’s Niall Stanage breaks down 4 ways Iowa underlined Trump’s “near-inevitability” as the GOP nominee, noting the “longer Trump can put off a one-on-one match-up, the greater the chances that his lead will become impregnable — especially in the delegate race that ultimately decides the nominee.”

BATTLE FOR SECOND: Haley is pushing for a two-person race with Trump, saying Tuesday the next debate she participates in “will either be with Donald Trump or with Joe Biden.” New Hampshire’s primary is Jan. 23.

Meanwhile, DeSantis is facing tough questions about his path forward after he invested most of its resources in the Hawkeye State, The Hill’s Julia Manchester and Caroline Vakil report.

Related: Axelrod says Trump a ‘formidable’ candidate, Biden and campaign ‘need to get into gear’

DELEGATE MATH: Trump got 20 delegates from Iowa, while DeSantis got 8 and Haley got 7. The eventual GOP nominee needs 1,215 delegates.

Iowa’s meager delegate haul isn’t really the highlight of the caucuses. But it further winnowed the field, with Ramaswamy and Hutchinson both dropping out after Monday’s results.

Bookmark Decision Desk HQ/The Hill’s Election Center for the latest delegate counts, polls and more.

Welcome to Evening Report! I’m Amee LaTour, catching you up from the afternoon and what’s coming tomorrow. Not on the list? Subscribe here.

• Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will force a vote Tuesday on a resolution requiring the State Department to produce a report on potential human rights abuses in Gaza and freezing assistance to Israel if the department doesn’t provide the report in 30 days.  

   

• The U.S. military destroyed four Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles in Yemen on Tuesday. It was the U.S.’s third round of strikes against the Houthis, the Iran-backed group that has been targeting commercial ships in the Red Sea, since last week.
  
  

• As winter storms hit many parts of the country, more than 2,000 flights within, into and out of the U.S. had been cancelled as of Tuesday afternoon, according to FlightAware.

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Former President Trump was in court in Manhattan Tuesday for the start of a trial determining how much he’ll pay in damages to writer E. Jean Carroll.

Carroll was awarded $5 million last year when a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing her in the 1990s and later defaming her. Carroll is now seeking at least $10 million in damages for Trump’s denials in 2019, when she first made her accusation public.

Trump railed against the case on Truth Social from the courthouse, writing that he “was wrongfully accused by a woman he never met, saw, or touched (a photo line does not count!), and knows absolutely nothing about.”

More Trump court news: New York high court denies Trump appeal of fraud case gag order

The Senate is set for its first procedural vote Tuesday evening on a short-term bill known as a CR to extend government funding beyond the Jan. 19 and Feb. 2 deadlines into March.

The proposed deal, reached among congressional leaders this weekend, has faced pushback from the House Freedom Caucus.

SIDENOTE… The lower chamber cancelled votes Tuesday amid inclement weather and is scheduled to hold its first votes of the week Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. ET. 

ALSO… Congress is still hashing out President Biden‘s request for funding to Ukraine, Israel, the U.S.-Mexico border and more. Biden will host congressional leaders for a talk at the White House tomorrow.

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Tax writers in Congress announced a deal that would increase the maximum child tax credit from $1,600 to $2,000 through 2025 as well as reinstate certain business deductions, including for research and development. More from The Hill’s Tobias Burns here.

The Supreme Court declined to review a ruling that allows transgender students in Indiana to use school facilities consistent with their gender identity.

“The refusal to take up the case, which had no noted dissents, leaves unresolved a split among the nation’s federal appeals courts as to whether school districts are barred from enacting policies prohibiting transgender students from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity,” The Hill’s Brooke Migdon and Zach Schonfeld reported. More here.

“In battles over offensive speech, the ‘cure’ is usually worse than the disease”

“Rabid hate speech against Jews isn’t a matter of interpretation”

3 days until the deadline for four government funding bills.

7 days until the New Hampshire primaries.

9 p.m. ET: Ron DeSantis participates in a CNN town hall in Henniker, New Hampshire.

Wednesday: Vice President Harris will discuss the 2024 campaign on ABC’s “The View.” Second gentleman Doug Emhoff is scheduled to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he’ll discuss the Biden administration’s effort to combat hate and participate in events on gender equity and women’s rights.

Thursday: The House Homeland Security Committee holds a second impeachment hearing for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas at 9:30 a.m. ET.

You’re all caught up! Stay with TheHill.com for the latest and recommend this newsletter to others: TheHill.com/Evening. See you tomorrow!