Rubio, Cruz play tug-of-war for anti-Trump voters

US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump rolled to victory in SC in a contest that saw former Florida governor Jeb Bush drop out, while Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton beat back a strong challenge from Bernie Sanders in Nevada.

Is it that hard to imagine, say, a Trump-Rubio ticket making those “I’d rather vote for Hillary” types reconsider?

Billionaire businessman Donald Trump acknowledges he probably needs to act more presidential and says he’ll do so “pretty soon”.

“What I think is happening is that as people hear our message, and it’s a tough message, because it speaks to the truth of American society today that a lot of people just don’t want to address”.

“We’re just going to have to come to terms with it”, Lott said.

“The pure viciousness we’re seeing in the Republican primaries is not emblematic of a party that can sway independents in the general [election], especially given the hateful rhetoric we’ve seen so casually leveled at immigrants and minorities time and time again”, Jara said.

Rod Benfield, a Ted Cruz supporter and GOP operative from SC – where Trump defeated runner-up Marco Rubio by 10 points on Saturday – said he expects Republicans to “circle the wagons” to counteract Trump, likely with Rubio leading the charge.

But as was the case after his stronger-than-expected third place in the Iowa caucuses, Rubio delivered a soaring victory-style speech on election night and his campaign sought to redefine the GOP nomination fight as a three-candidate battle with Rubio, Trump and Texas Sen.

On NBC’s “Meet the Press”, Cruz refused to concede repeated attacks on him by Trump and Cruz calling him a liar had an impact on the results.

“We did not do as good a job as I had wanted to bring out a large turnout”, Sanders said.

With Bush’s departure, there are five candidates remaining with one more race before Super Tuesday on March 1.

Jeb Bush, who hails from a family of presidents, was once the frontrunner in the race.

Mr Trump’s victory in SC, however, was more convincing.

Almost half of South Carolina’s electorate who cast their votes for the Republican front-runner – 44 percent – believed that illegal immigrants should be deported. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz tied for second. I honestly have never looked at it. As somebody said, he’s not. Based on the way the state’s delegates are apportioned, neither Cruz nor Rubio won any in what is shaping up as a three candidate race. Donald Trump won big in the Palmetto State after receiving support from the state’s evangelicals – a surprise to Cruz supporters like Kaye Goolsby, the national grassroots chair for Cruz.