MANCHESTER, N.H. — New Hampshire voters were supposed to anoint a prophet.

After nine nightmarish months of Donald Trump dominating the GOP race, party stalwarts had hoped Tuesday's first-in-the-nation primary would end with the emergence of a consensus establishment standard-bearer ready to take the fight to The Donald. But when the polls closed in the Granite State, the billionaire was celebrating a blowout — while a distant cluster of also-rans jockeyed pathetically between second-, third-, and fourth-place finishes.

In a cast of presidential candidates once hyped as the most dynamic and diverse in the party's history, not one could get within 19 points of Trump. And yet almost all of them declared Tuesday they were determined to soldier on.

(The one exception: Chris Christie, who is heading home to New Jersey where he is expected to drop out.)

Now, as the unruly Republican presidential field decamps for South Carolina, many in the party are predicting a drawn-out and damaging primary fight.

"This race is going to go on a long time, with no obvious winner until April or May," said former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer. "There still is time for the so-called establishment candidate to emerge and make a stand ... but the results of New Hampshire mean it will happen later, rather than sooner."

This wasn't necessarily inevitable. Until last weekend, polls showed voters here flocking to Marco Rubio, as many became convinced he was best equipped to deliver the party from The Donald and defeat Hillary Clinton in the fall. But Rubio's jarring onstage performance at Saturday's Republican debate scrambled the race in its final three days — and by the time the votes were counted, the GOP golden boy had plummeted to fifth place.

At Rubio's rally Tuesday night inside the Radisson-Manchester ballroom, a few supporters tried to gin up enthusiasm as the returns that were trickling in showed a neck-and-neck race between Rubio and Jeb Bush. The Marcomaniacs cheered when Fox News showed their guy taking the lead, and they booed when a talking head talked up Jeb. But their excitement never quite caught on with the rest of the crowd. After all, it isn't easy to stay invested in a contest where the trophy is losing to Donald Trump by only 23 points.

When Rubio eventually came onstage to deliver his concession speech, he said he remained "confident" in his campaign, and tried to steel his supporters for the long, tough fight ahead.