While these groups were Trump’s most ardent supporters, he won nearly every other key segment of the electorate. “We haven’t been in that mode yet but probably it’ll happen”.
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Nevada was a critical test for Mr Rubio and Mr Cruz, who are battling to emerge as the clear alternative to Mr Trump.
Surprisingly, entrance polls showed that Trump won the Hispanic votes even though he has campaigned on a hard-line immigration platform, including building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump’s decisive win is likely to further frustrate Republican establishment figures who, less than a month ago, were hoping that the outspoken billionaire’s insurgent candidacy was stalled after he lost the opening nominating contest in Iowa to Cruz.
Cruz spoke six days before a dozen states hold primaries and caucuses as part of Super Tuesday, during which 595 delegates will be awarded. “We won with poorly educated”, he said after the victory in Nevada.
During his victory speech, Trump applauded a wide variety of voters who he claimed turned out in Nevada to support him.
Marco Rubio placed a distant second, with 24 percent of the vote, and Ted Cruz finished in third with 21 percent.
“The vast and overwhelming majority of Republicans do not want Donald Trump to be our nominee”, Marco Rubio, a senator from Florida, told NBC.
But in many other states voting that day, Trump is ahead. But home states have helped candidates in the past.
Midwestern states more friendly to Kasich come later in the cycle, after Trump has likely won several Super Tuesday states: MI votes March 8, and then Kasich’s home state of OH votes March 15.
At Palo Verde High School in Las Vegas, one of the larger GOP caucus sites, there was a line out the door starting at about 5 p.m., as caucus-goers headed in to vote either in classrooms or small round tables labeled with their precinct number inside of the large auditorium. “He hasn’t said anything stupid or insane… which is really what I think the country needs”, Haight said.
Between his second and third victories, Mr. Trump had raised his rhetoric an extra notch, by recounting approvingly an unverified rumour about an early 20 century American general who killed opponents with bullets dipped in pig’s blood; and by declaring that he wanted to punch a protestor at a rally.
Trump’s support among evangelical voters in Nevada was particularly noteworthy.
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The remaining two candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and OH governor John Kasich, lagged far behind in the single digits. The bigger the delegate lead Trump amasses during this phase, the more hard he’ll be to stop.
