Rubio and Cruz are looking toward the so-called Super Tuesday group of contests to boost their campaigns and reel in Trump, who has led national polls for months.
Advertisement
In last night’s Nevada caucuses, Trump showed new strengths, notably cracking through the 40 percent ceiling. “Soon, the country is going to start winning, winning, winning”.
Fellow candidate Marco Rubio, a Senator from Florida, appears to have gotten the upper hand for second place above Texas Senator Ted Cruz, with slightly above 24 percent of the vote to third-placed Cruz’s approximately 22 percent.
Without mentioning Nevada victor Donald Trump, Cruz said Texas won’t be swayed by “blustery rhetoric” and that “the time for the clowns and the acrobats and the dancing bears has passed”. Meanwhile, Rubio touted his establishment candidacy for a general election win.
Other issues that have plagued the caucus in the past, included the delayed results: In 2012 the caucus was on a Saturday, and the official results were not in until Monday morning, the Guardian reported. “It’s going to be an fantastic two months”, he said.
And there’s a downside to a Cruz win in Texas. (In fact, on Monday, Donald Trump called them a “dangerous” system on Hugh Hewitt’s radio program.) Nevada debuted its status of “first in the West” back in 2008, and given that many people are unfamiliar with the caucus process there has been traditionally low voter turnout. Nevada raises more questions about his viability. The election calendar suggests that if Trump’s rivals don’t slow him by mid-March, they may not ever.
Cruz had a hard week ahead of the caucus, losing the evangelical vote to Trump in SC and facing accusations that his campaign plays dirty tricks on his opponents. Eight delegates were still left to be allocated.
Mr. Trump laughs off suggestions that once the field is winnowed, Republicans will rally behind an “anti-Trump” mainstream candidate, such as Mr. Rubio.
That’s half of what’s needed to win the nomination.
“We’re gonna get greedy for the United States”, he pledged.
The second biggest state voting on Super Tuesday is Georgia, with 76 delegates and a 50 percent threshold to win all the delegates. Count Tracy Brigida, fed up after her husband was laid off from his mining job, among those caucusing for Trump. Duncan Hunter of California and Chris Collins of NY announcing they are backing him for the Republican presidential nomination.
Trump took about 47 percent of the vote, according to early returns.
Advertisement
The results, he said, showed that “the only campaign that has beaten Donald Trump and the only campaign that can beat Donald Trump is this campaign”.
