Former Florida governor Jeb Bush has dropped out of the Republican race for USA president after failing to rank high in the first three state contests.
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“Some may have doubted us, but we never doubted each other”, she told cheering supporters at a victory rally in Las Vegas.
“They don’t understand that as people drop out, I’m going to get a lot of those votes also”, he said.
With 57 per cent of SC precincts reporting, Mr Trump had 33.9 per cent, followed by Mr Cruz with 21.8 per cent and Mr Rubio with 21.5 per cent.
Bush went on to finish sixth in the Iowa caucuses, but barely squeezed ahead of Rubio in New Hampshire for a fourth place finish.
“Super Tuesday’s going to tell the story with Donald Trump”, he said of the critical upcoming March 1 votes in about a dozen USA states.
During his victory speech in the city of Spartanburg, Trump congratulated his closest competitors for their effort in Saturday’s primary.
Trump’s victory left Florida senator Marco Rubio and Texas Senator Ted Cruz fighting for second place with about 22 percent votes each. There are too many candidates in the field and as a result the anti-Trump vote is diluted.
For both parties, the 2016 election has laid bare voters’ frustration with Washington and the influence of big money in the political system. Some polls showed Trump with a double-digit lead over his five challengers while some polls trimmed that lead down to single digits. His victory was another sign that the conventional rules of politics often don’t apply to the brash billionaire. Ted Cruz for second place in the “First in the South” primary.
Kasich’s chief strategist John Weaver says in a statement the race will now be a four-man contest between Kasich, Rubio, Cruz and Trump. Though he was once considered the front-runner for the GOP nomination, new fundraising reports out Saturday showed that donations to his super PAC had largely stalled.
The popular SC governor endorsed Rubio on the Wednesday preceding the primary and barnstormed the state with him in the closing days. But somehow John Kasich of OH has outlasted both Jeb Bush and Chris Christie.
Their healthy accounts stand in sharp contrast to the comparatively cash-strapped Republicans. Clinton is now leading by a massive margin in SC, which has its Democratic primary next Saturday. Bernie Sanders picked up the remaining 47.4% of the vote. After all, Clinton’s win in Nevada had Mook’s fingerprints all over it. The former secretary of state captured the backing of voters who said electability and experience were important.
Sanders, a US senator from Vermont, is a self-described democratic socialist who has criticized Clinton’s ties to Wall Street and generated enthusiasm among young voters with his call for breaking up the big banks and reducing income inequality. “We have the momentum”. But if Bush was unable to stay close to the leaders, he was sure to face pressure to end his campaign.
Mrs Clinton’s campaign has argued she would assert control of the Democratic race once it moved to more diverse states with black and Hispanic populations, who have traditionally backed Mrs Clinton and have been slow to warm to Mr Sanders.
Trump, whose comments about Mexican immigrants, women, and critics in general have been condemned throughout the campaign, added more controversial statements to that list during his time in SC.
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Trump leads the overall race for delegates with 55.
