Ted Cruz, with his crushing win in the Nevada caucuses marking a third straight victory in state contests.
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The other “face cards” were Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, with Rubio once again edging his fellow senator by a narrow margin.
I know this will come as a shock to many NRO readers, but a state built on glitz and legalized casino gambling, a state where prostitution is legal in several counties and one where one of the candidates who exemplifies the aforementioned characteristics has his name on the tallest residential building, isn’t necessarily the state that is likely to be an electoral stronghold for family-values Republicans or traditional conservatives-or frankly anyone not named Donald J. Trump.
Nevada was a critical test for Mr Rubio and Mr Cruz, who are battling to emerge as the clear alternative to Mr Trump.
It also worked to Trump’s advantage that more Republicans in Nevada wanted the next president to be from outside the political establishment (61 percent) than in SC (48 percent), New Hampshire (50 percent), or Iowa (48 percent).
Stroebel said he is actively pursuing campaign leaders for Cruz in all of Wisconsin’s 72 counties and said they are “well on their way” to making that happen before Wisconsin’s April primary election.
The entrance poll survey was conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks by Edison Research as Republican voters arrived at 25 randomly selected caucus sites in Nevada. But one of them will have to fall on sword if there is to be a nominee other than Donald Trump.
A GOP field that included a dozen candidates a month ago has been reduced to five, with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush the latest to drop out after a disappointing finish in SC. Trump also dominated among the 20% of voters (the highest number in any state so far) who listed immigration as their most important issue to them.
Cruz, a fiery conservative popular among voters on the GOP’s right, needs a spark to recover from one of the weakest moments of his campaign.
Cruz has spent the past week fending off attacks from Trump and Rubio that he’s a liar.
Steineke said he thought Trump had tapped into voters’ anger, but can’t provide policy positions that most Republicans would support. In his victory speech, Mr Trump pointed to his promising poll numbers in his rivals’ home states: Texas, Florida and Ohio. It is in these states that the difference between Cruz’s organization and his opponents will be most stark. Lagging far behind in the Nevada vote were OH governor John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
Going into Super Tuesday, Cruz is the best financed candidate in the Republican contest.
When all was said and done, the brash billionaire won the Nevada caucuses with 45.9% of the vote.
It’s understandable for the Republican Party to be panicking about this, since all the signs are that Trump as nominee would lead them to a massive defeat.
Carson, who broke out briefly in October but has since faded on the debate stage and in the polls and vote counts, has said he wants to soldier on. With its 155 delegates, Cruz’s home state is the biggest prize that day. “The undeniable reality the first four states has shown is the only campaign that has beat Donald Trump, and the only campaign that can beat Donald Trump, is this one”, he said.
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“We’re winning, winning, winning the country”, Trump declared Tuesday.
