His rivals are running out of time to stop him.
Advertisement
Trump, though, romped where Trump has to — among those who want a candidate who “tells it like it is”, and those who are angry at the federal government.
So if they’re going give it a try, then getting Cruz out of the way is where they have to start.
Romney also says he believes Trump has the clearest path to the Republican nomination and that there is “a slimmer and slimmer opening” for his rivals unless the field narrows.
Rubio, focused on future primaries, left Nevada after a Tuesday morning rally at a casino in Las Vegas and later addressed supporters in Minneapolis and Grand Rapids, Michigan. I think the terrain is very favorable and we’re going to campaign hard.
Trump’s advantage is the voters aren’t following their leaders. Bernie Sanders, a democratic socialist, who has put up a strong challenge to front-runner and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
Preliminary projections weren’t able to call second and third place, which showed Sen.
Trump, in his victory speech, took on the notion advanced by both Rubio and Cruz that if more GOP candidates drop out of the race, they’ll coalesce around an alternative.
Ben Carson will probably say he has momentum finishing well ahead of John Kasich, but is well behind Rubio and Cruz not to mention Trump. This is coming off a 35.3% of votes and 10 delegate win in New Hampshire, and a #2.5% win, which includes all 50 delegates in SC.
Trump boasts he will have the Republican presidential nomination within two months.
Cruz, a fiery conservative popular among voters on the GOP’s right, had finished a disappointing third in SC after spending much of the past two weeks denying charges of dishonest campaign tactics and defending his integrity.
As recently as December, Nevada was described as Rubio’s “firewall” – the state he could count on winning, even if all else fails.
A direct, one-on-one choice, though, may not be available to GOP voters — not if Trump has a few more nights like he did Tuesday in Nevada.
“The other candidates amount to 55%”, Trump said. Voters in 11 states with a total of 595 delegates will cast ballots in those contests. There were 30 delegates at stake in Nevada, and a whopping 595 available one week later on Super Tuesday bonanza.
Rubio lived in Nevada and he still has many extended family members in the state.
Rubio, a senator from Florida, has been consolidating support from establishment Republicans, trumpeting one endorsement after another, since the demise of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s candidacy. After several hours of outrage about partisan poll workers, the Nevada Republican Party tweeted a clarification that that wasn’t against the rules.
Advertisement
Benac reported from Washington.
