Donald Trumps Wins The Nevada Caucuses

However, entrance polls showed that 61 percent of Tuesday’s caucus-goers want next president to a political outsider, a reflection of the overall mood inside the Republican party base. His rivals are running out of time to stop him.

On Wednesday, Trump won his first endorsements from sitting members of Congress, with Reps.

“We’re winning, winning, winning the country”, Mr Trump declared.

“Of course, if you listened to the pundits, we weren’t expected to win too much, but now we are winning, winning, winning the country, and soon the country is going to start winning, winning, winning”.

“There’s something wrong with this guy”, Trump said with his usual measure of tact during a massive Las Vegas rally Monday night. As of now, about half the delegates needed for a Republican candidate are available to win the GOP nomination. Trump won 14 delegates in Nevada. Ted Cruz seemed nearly relieved to put the caucuses behind him. Among voters 65 and over, who made up a third of Nevada Republican caucus-goers, Trump more than doubled Rubio’s support, winning 51 percent to 25 percent. The surveys accurately forecasted a tight race for second place between Cruz and Rubio.

OH governor John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson remain in the race and could play spoilers as the trio of leading candidates battle for delegates with an increasing sense of urgency.

Among those who decided whom to support in the last week, about four in 10 backed Mr Rubio, about a quarter supported Mr Trump and about two in 10 supported Mr Cruz.

“Here’s the bottom-line fact: The vast and overwhelming majority of the Republicans do not want Donald Trump to be our nominee”, Rubio said.

When asked about his loss to Donald Trump in the Nevada caucus on Tuesday on “Fox and Friends”, Rubio noted that “this is an unusual election”.

Plan A: Get at least one win in the first three states (Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina) and then win Nevada as the exclamation point before heading home to the giant Florida GOP primary. It is the biggest single-day delegate haul of the nomination contests.

If Republicans are to coalesce around a Trump alternative it will have to take place seven days from now on Super Tuesday.

In the Democratic race, front-runner Hillary Clinton was looking for a commanding victory over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was busy courting the minority vote ahead of the Saturday primary, and hitting rival Hillary Clinton over her paid speeches to Wall Street, demanding she release the transcripts.