But those fortunes didn’t extend to Sanders this weekend.
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Significantly, the playbook had no strategy for Donald Trump, the candidate who spent most of the race scrutinizing Bush.
Of the 11 states voting in the crucial “Super Tuesday” on March 1, latest polls showed the billionaire with seemingly insurmountable margins in Massachusetts, Alabama and Vermont, with narrower advantages in Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Alaska.
Trump opted against his trademark braggadocio in assessing the state of the race on Sunday.
He said, “I wish Nevada would make it illegal. Gov. Bush has many things to be proud of”, Rubio said.
“Frankly, if she gets indicted (for using personal emails for official purposes), that’s the only way she’s going to be stopped. Right now, I’m fighting for my life”. The 63-year-old former candidate spoke in a subdued tone, his eyes moist and briefly choking up saying: “it was essential that the next president be a person who would serve “with honor and decency”. For Mr Bush, winning SC was a must if he was to continue his campaign. “We see conservatives continuing to unite behind our campaign”, the Texas senator told NBC’s “Meet the Press”.
2,000 miles away, Hillary Clinton scored an important victory in the Democratic caucus in Nevada.
She had been hoping for a big victory in Nevada where she is popular with Hispanic and minority voters.
“We won young people in South Carolina”, Cruz said.
“Then I think you start printing the inaugural invitation”, Dole joked.
The next Democratic primary is in SC on Feb 27 but there Mrs Clinton has a clear advantage.
Donald Trump followed up his win in New Hampshire with victory in SC, and swept all of the state’s 50 delegates.
The 2016 presidential campaign isn’t taking too long off before the next contests. “When you win, it’s handsome”.
That date is the crown jewel in the state-by-state nominating contests to pick the Republican and Democratic candidates who will face off in the November 8 presidential election.
Meanwhile, Jeb Bush has made a decision to stop his run, marking another fallout in the Republican party.
McCarthy said Trump’s momentum and success reminds him of when Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor in California and took office in 2011. Those voters were slightly more likely to say they voted for Trump (33 percent) than Cruz (27 percent).
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Sounding less like his normally combative self, Trump on Sunday credited Bush in a pair of interviews with having fought hard in the campaign and called him “very capable”.
