United States Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is the projected victor of the Nevada caucuses for the party’s nomination, local media is reporting.
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“Trump is going to win Nevada unless something very, very unusual happens”, Jon Ralston, the state’s top political analyst, predicted on MSNBC Tuesday evening. That gave him at least 12 of the 30 delegates at stake, which would bring his total to at least 79 before February ends, according to the Associated Press. He has a narrow advantage among college-educated voters, but here he competes with the fourth wheel in the race – John Kasich, who is targeting MI and OH, where he will nearly certainly take votes away from Rubio.
Cruz won the first nominating contest in the state of Iowa, and told his supporters after the Nevada caucus he is the only candidate who has and can beat Trump. “It’s going to be an unbelievable two months”, he said.
“We weren’t expected to win too much and now we’re winning, winning, winning the country”, Trump said during his victory speech, CNN reported.
Rubio and Cruz both assume they’ll inherit the vast majority of non-Trump supporters if the field winnows.
It was never certain that Mr Trump would secure a win in Nevada – despite being a player in the Las Vegas hotel industry. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks during a caucus night rally, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016, in Las Vegas.
“As long as this remains jumbled, Trump is the big-time victor”, said Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist who worked on the McCain-Palin presidential campaign in 2008. “In the case of Ted Cruz, he has now repeatedly made things up about me, and we’ve had to clear the air on those things and point to the fact that he’s making things up”. Repeating again that he was the only candidate so far to topple Trump once before in Iowa, Cruz declared that Super Tuesday in now less than one week “will be the most important night of this campaign”.
Cruz’s campaign has relied on a strong ground game in the early voting states and as the race moves into the heart of the primaries, his strategy is no different in Texas. The state party says they’ll be reviewing ballots closely.
While Cruz is seen as the prospective favorite to win the Texas primary, nothing is guaranteed in a campaign season that has so far been dominated by Trump.
More than 10 states will hold primaries and caucuses that day.
In the Nevada Democratic Caucus on February 20, Hillary Clinton got 74 percent among voters 65 and older and 61 percent among those 45 to 64.
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On Wednesday, Chris Collins, a Republican congressman from Trump’s home state of NY, became the first national lawmaker to endorse Trump, saying in a statement “it’s time to say no to professional politicians and yes to someone who has created jobs and grown a business”.
