The Florida senator edged Cruz, a Texas senator, for second place in Nevada, and it’s clear his time is at hand if he’s to have one.
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“The undeniable reality that the first four states has shown is that the only campaign that has beaten Donald Trump, and the only campaign that can beat Donald Trump, is this campaign”, Cruz told a rally in Las Vegas late Tuesday, harking back once again to his win in the Iowa caucuses.
“You know we didn’t expected to win this one a couple of months ago”, he said.
O’Connell, who isn’t backing anyone in the GOP presidential race, said Rubio or Cruz needs to drop out soon to deny Trump the nomination.
The name Trump has been on the Las Vegas Strip for years.
He noted that the Nevada caucus was taking place as mainstream Republicans are grudgingly accepting the fact that the bombastic Trump may well end up the party’s nominee given his seemingly unstoppable winning streak.
Rubio, already campaigning in MI as caucus results rolled in, was projecting confidence that he can consolidate the non-Trump voters who have been splintering among an assortment of Republican candidates, saying, “we have incredible room to grow”.
With former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush out of the race, the Rubio forces now believe they have a real shot at beating Trump in Florida, the first of the winner-take-all contests. Is he prepared to endure months of finishing behind Trump and, sometimes, Rubio for the slim chance that he’ll get to play kingmaker in Cleveland?
While Trump’s climb into the 40% range there isn’t certain to stick elsewhere, his Nevada victory means he has all the momentum as the Republican race picks up steam and goes national. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz were 20 points behind as of early returns. And these numbers probably are close to accurate, in the sense that Cruz hasn’t approached 50 percent in any of the recent polls of Texas.
“The problem is that they’re divided up among four people”, he said. Delegate totals so far: 82 for Trump, 17 for Ted Cruz, 16 for Rubio, 6 for Kasich and 4 for Ben Carson.
“So far he’s been very nice and I think I’ve been very nice to him”, Trump said on NBC’s “Today” show.
But he and his team have adamantly refused to predict an outcome to the caucuses, with polling showing Trump holding a significant lead and the caucus format notoriously hard to evaluate. With proportional representation in most states, he could trail Trump in votes that day and still hold his own in delegates.
Mr Trump now has three straight victories – in the West, the South and North east – a testament to his broad appeal among the “mad-as-hell” voters making their voices heard in the 2016 United States presidential race.
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While more than 1,200 are needed to secure the Republican presidential nomination, Trump has a formidable head start.
