Donald Trump wins again in Nevada, builds momentum

U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump emerged victorious in Tuesday night’s Nevada caucuses, the fourth contest for the Republican Party’s nomination.

The 69-year-old celebrity builder, who announced his White House bid from the bottom of a gold escalator in NY in June, adds Nevada to previous victories in New Hampshire and SC.

But since then, Mr Trump has tallied wins in New Hampshire, South Carolina, and now Nevada, with a suite of southern states ahead on 1 March, so-called Super Tuesday.

If Trump wins, the news will be who came in second. The state has 30 delegates up for grabs, which are distributed proportionally according to where candidates finish in the caucuses.

At a rally in Las Vegas on the eve of the caucuses Monday, Trump – who graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1968 – didn’t exactly sound like a presidential candidate, much less one with an economics degree. Marco Rubio lived in Nevada as a boy, and he and Ted Cruz are both of Cuban descent, which could give them some advantage with Latino voters in Nevada. Even Rubio caught Cruz among that group, with about a quarter of evangelicals supporting each. When CNN projected Trump would win the race there was a minute-long cheer, which switched to boos when Cruz was mentioned. Heading into Nevada, Trump was in the lead among Republican candidates for delegates needed to secure the nomination. “We’re the smartest people, we’re the most loyal people”, Trump said pompously during his victory speech in Nevada, Tuesday night (Feb. 23).

Additionally, Rubio supporters have expressed hope that Republicans who had been behind Jeb Bush would come to their side after the former Florida governor’s exit. “They keep forgetting that when people drop out, we’re going to get a lot of votes”.

He continued: “The undeniable reality that the first four states have shown is that the only campaign that has beaten Donald Trump and the only campaign that can beat Donald Trump is this campaign”.

The Nevada Republican Party tweeted that “there have been no official reports of voting irregularities or violations” at caucus sites.