Following a virtual tie in the Democratic Iowa caucus and a Ted Cruz upset in the Republican Iowa caucus, candidates hit the road to New Hampshire to see how they fare in the Granite State in today’s primary.

Penn State political science professor Michael Nelson said via email that the momentum from Iowa will carry into New Hampshire for the top-placing Republicans. Also, both Democrats in the race are trying to spin the virtual tie to their advantage.

“[Hillary] Clinton is reminding voters that Iowa — a state in which she lost in a big way in 2008 — went in her favor,” Nelson said. “[Bernie] Sanders is touting how close the race was as evidence of his candidacy as a strong challenge to Clinton's.”

Communications Director for the Penn State College Democrats Luis Rolfo said the competitive Democratic finish and good voter turnout in Iowa shows that the Democrats are energized and take the race seriously enough to go out and vote.

Sanders should win New Hampshire, according to the poll numbers, Rolfo (senior-political science and communication arts and sciences) said, but the national race will still remain close.

Nelson said Republicans will try to brand Donald Trump as a loser for his second-place finish in Iowa, while Trump, Cruz and Marco Rubio will all use their Iowa finish to their advantage.

Secretary for the Penn State College Republicans Michael Straw said the results were interesting and the candidates who placed in the top three were the main topics for the week.

Straw (junior-political science and economics) said Rubio, Cruz and Trump will likely remain near the top, but he said he believes another candidate, possibly John Kasich, might sneak into the mix.

The polls point to Trump leading New Hampshire by a wider margin than he was in Iowa, and it is outside the margin of error, he said.

The results in Iowa were also followed by a handful of candidates leaving the race: Martin O’Malley, Rand Paul, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum.

Huckabee and Santorum both endorsed Rubio, which Straw said will be important. But, out of all the candidates that dropped out, Straw said Paul was the only candidate to have decent amount of support in Iowa and it is still unknown where Paul’s support will go.

Straw said there is larger libertarian presence in New Hampshire than there is in Iowa. Some of that support might go to Cruz, who has some libertarian leanings, Straw said, or it may go to Rubio who was once considered a Tea Party Republican.