That’s three in a row: Donald Trump wins Nevada

Donald Trump was declared the victor of the Nevada Republican presidential caucuses early Wednesday morning, extending his lead in the nomination fight before the nationwide contests next week.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio won 24 percent of the vote, and Texas Senator Ted Cruz came in third with 21 percent. “And, the delegate math is close to conclusive: Donald Trump will be extremely close to the 1,237 delegates he needs to formally claim the party’s nomination by the end of the primary process”. While Texas Senator Cruz managed to push him to the second place in Iowa, establishment favourite Rubio has yet to win a state.

While Rubio has not targeted Trump, he has fired back at Cruz at times during the campaign. Mr Cruz won the lead-off Iowa caucuses.

“Right now all Donald says is, you know, he tells you what the result is going to be but he refuses to outline how we’re going to achieve these things”, he said.

Marco Rubio, with 23 per cent of the vote, looks likely to come in second.

“If you are Cruz and Rubio you have to worry about how far Trump is getting ahead of you”, said Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist in Washington.

“First of all I think you need to take everything that we’ve applied, the lessons of every other campaign before and throw them out the window”.

Donald Trump today scored decisive victory in Nevada’s crucial Caucuses, a third consecutive win that brightened the controversial real estate tycoon’s prospects to secure the Republican presidential nomination.

Many Republican state committees award their delegates on a near winner-take-all system, which could turn Trump’s repeated plurality wins into a true majority if voters don’t coalesce around a single alternative who can beat the NY billionaire. He has support even though he said he wants to build a wall between Mexico and the United States.

Polls show the former first lady with a huge advantage among African-Americans, which bodes well for her prospects in the Southern states that vote on Super Tuesday. And Trump won four in 10 of those voters, an even stronger victory than in SC.

Broadcast networks called the state for Trump nearly immediately after voting ended, with the state Republican Party confirming the victory soon after.

“They want to get Cruz out and have Rubio go against Trump”, he added. Republicans will vote in 11 states, with 595 delegates at stake.

Caucuses are open group sessions between Republican supporters where they can discuss candidates before selecting one in a secret ballot.

Rubio indicated that if it comes down to a two horse race between himself and Trump, polls are putting him well out in front.