Businesswoman Carly Fiorina did the same.
Advertisement
All signs now point to a drawn-out battle in the state-by-state contests following billionaire businessman Mr Trump’s resounding victory in New Hampshire. Cruz finished third with 11.6 percent, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was fourth with 11.1 percent.
“We very easily could be looking at May – or the convention” in July before there’s a “functional nominee”, Rubio campaign manager Terry Sullivan said in a brief interview with The Associated Press. It is likely more candidates on the Republican side will drop out.
Here’s something that should worry Republican elites: 64% of GOP primary voters said they supported a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States.
The Washington Post said Sanders’ decisive victory embarrassing Clinton in a state she won eight years ago against then Senator Barack Obama “confirmed the strength of his iconoclastic appeal and the power of an insurgent message that cast Clinton as a creature of the old guard”.
Candidates are now retooling pitches for the primaries ahead for the GOP, as on February 20 they will be in SC with Nevada on February 23.
Should Mr Trump win in SC, it could grow exceedingly hard for his rivals to slow his momentum as the race moves into conservative states across the south in the next few weeks. “Bernie Sanders has until the end of March to prove it’s not”, reports Politico.
Mr Sanders, meanwhile, met the Rev Al Sharpton, a civil rights activist, at a Harlem restaurant. It’s a worst-case scenario for the Florida senator and many Republican officials alike who hoped to avoid a prolonged and painful nomination fight in 2016.
He drew contrasts with Mr Trump as he told a crowd of 500 in Myrtle Beach that Texans and South Carolinians were more alike than not. But Trump did roughly the same among people who feel betrayed by Republican politicians and those who don’t.
Still, the total for Kasich, Bush, Rubio and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was far more than Trump got, suggesting Republicans could be headed for a lengthy three-way race if one of them could consolidate that support.
Jeb Bush found himself fighting for his political life, but awkwardly insisted to supporters that “this campaign is not dead”, and that he would roll on to SC. With about 35% of the Republican vote, Trump beat out Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush and John Kasich, drawing in a lot of new voters as well as Republicans who like frankness.
Lost for the moment amid the shake-up in the second tier of the Republican race is the fact that Donald Trump dramatically consolidated his position as front-runner in the tangled race.
Advertisement
Mr Rubio and Mr Kasich criticised Mr Bush for having spent so much money seeking to take down his opponents in the first two nominating states. With a minimal SC operation compared to his rivals, Mr Kasich must work quickly. “He does basically the second best against Hillary Clinton out of any one in the field after Marco Rubio”. “I thank god every day that George W. Bush was President, but Jeb has no foreign policy experience”.
