An emotional Jeb Bush bows out of the Republican presidential race

“I think it’s going to be Hillary and myself”, Mr Trump told CNN on Sunday. Nevada’s Republican caucuses are Tuesday, and then a dozen states vote in the March 1 Super Tuesday bonanza.

Cruz cited his first place finish in Iowa as evidence that he would be the strongest candidate to take on Trump.

The real estate mogul added he was also hit hard with negative ads in SC by Cruz’s campaign.

“This has become a three-person race”, Rubio said of his strong finish, which with Bush leaving the race, bolsters his case that he is the candidate of mainstream Republicans.

Meanwhile for the Democrats, Hillary Clinton won Saturday’s Nevada caucuses with 52.6% of the vote to Bernie Sanders’ 47.4% as the rivals prepare for the next contest in SC on Saturday. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vermont) rising popularity in the Democratic primary.

“It may come to presenting Republican primary voters in future states with a choice where two of the candidates team up and say, ‘Look, if I win, this is going to be my running mate, ‘” Cullen said.

“The people of Iowa, New Hampshire and SC have spoken and I respect their decision, so with that I am suspending my campaign”, Bush said.

Jeb Bush bowed out of the Republican race after finishing fourth behind Fla. Sen.

“You do the math fairly quickly, and you realize that, if this was a more traditional or narrower race, the results would be different”, he said.

Marco Rubio of Florida, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Ben Carson still in the race, the real-estate tycoon will continue to notch victories.

Outsider businessman Donald Trump, much to the distress of the Republican establishment, carried on his charge to the nomination by emphatically winning SC. “It’s tough, it’s nasty, it’s mean, it’s vicious, it’s attractive”, he said.

In his concession speech, Mr Sanders pointed out that earlier in the campaign Mrs Clinton was 40 points ahead of him in Nevada but she won by only 10pc.

Trump leads the overall race for delegates with 55.

“I’m competing against professional politicians”, Trump said on CBS’s “Face the Nation”.

“The evangelical vote was supposed to power Cruz, and born-again Christians turned out in large numbers: White evangelicals made up more than two-thirds of the electorate, 67 percent, up from 64 percent in 2012.”

“You have to have a true conservative” to win.

Whoever is the next POTUS, Donald Trump has certainly shaken up the Republican Party, and the establishment is going to have to adapt to Trump’s new world order.