NOTCHING THREE IN a row, Donald Trump decisively won Nevada’s Republican caucuses overnight as Marco Rubio bid to elbow out Ted Cruz for second place in an increasingly urgent effort to slam the brakes on the Trump juggernaut.
Trump now can claim victories in the West, the South and Northeast — a testament to his broad appeal among the mad-as-hell voters making their voices heard in the 2016 presidential race. His rivals are running out of time to stop him.
“We’re winning, winning, winning the country,” Trump declared. “Soon, the country is going to start winning, winning, winning.”
Ticking off a list of upcoming primary states where he’s leading in preference polls, Trump predicted he’ll soon be able to claim the GOP nomination. “It’s going to be an amazing two months,” he told a raucous crowd at a Las Vegas casino. “We might not even need the two months, folks, to be honest.”
Entrance polls captured the sentiment propelling Trump’s insurgent campaign: Six in 10 caucus goers said they were angry with the way the government is working, and Trump got about half of them.
With time running out, Nevada was a critical test for Rubio and Cruz, the two senators battling to emerge as the clear alternative to the GOP front-runner. Rubio was out to prove he can build on recent momentum, while Cruz was looking for a spark to help him recover from a particularly rocky stretch in his campaign.
Lagging far behind the two senators in the Nevada vote were Ohio Governor John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
Rubio, already campaigning in Michigan as caucus results rolled in, sought to project confidence that he can consolidate the non-Trump voters who have been splintering among an assortment of GOP candidates, saying “we have incredible room to grow.”
But after finishing third in Iowa, fifth in New Hampshire and second in South Carolina, Rubio needs a win soon to support the idea he can beat Trump.
Cruz, a fiery conservative popular among voters on the GOP’s right, finished a disappointing third in South Carolina after spending much of the past two weeks denying charges of dishonest campaign tactics and defending his integrity.
Another disappointing finish in Nevada would raise new questions about his viability heading into a crucial batch of Super Tuesday states on 1 March.
In a more muted address across town, Cruz gave Trump his due for winning in Nevada and then pressed the argument that he’s the only candidate who can stop the billionaire businessman.
Harking back to own win in Iowa’s leadoff caucuses, Cruz told supporters “the only campaign that has defeated Donald Trump is this campaign.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say