Trump Wins Nevada Republican Caucus

His win follows triumphs in New Hampshire and SC. We’ve grown accustomed to Trump being expected to win, but we haven’t yet become used to his actually winning.

‘And soon the country will start winning, winning, winning’.

The GOP race is Trump’s to lose.

“It’s going to be an unbelievable two months”, he told a raucous crowd at a Las Vegas casino Tuesday night. “We might not even need the two months, to be honest”.

That’s half of what’s needed to win the nomination.

Trump won 50 percent of the voters who described themselves as “somewhat conservative”, according to the entrance poll. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen.

“If you want to see America standing unapologetically next to the nation of Israel, ask yourself who has led the fight to stand unshakably next to the nation of Israel”, said Cruz, who also said he would “rip to shreds” last year’s Iran nuclear deal.

And Rubio criticized Trump for substituting anger for vision.

Several states will hold voting next week in Super Tuesday, though Rubio shied away Wednesday from naming which states he would win.

On the Democrat side, impatient voters have rallied around Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, a democratic socialist, who has put up a strong challenge to front-runner and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

On Tuesday night, Trump already had his eye on the calendar ahead, boasting as he declared victory that he was creeping up in the polls in Texas, which votes in next week’s Super Tuesday contest – a not-so-subtle dig at Cruz.

The Midwest gets its first chance to vote on Super Tuesday.

With time running out, Nevada was a critical test for Rubio and Cruz, the two senators battling to emerge as the clear alternative to the GOP front-runner. Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich are all facing enormous pressure in their home state primaries, which account for about a fourth of the delegates up for grabs in the next three weeks. The Nevada Republican Party avoided its 2012 caucus debacle, in which polling results were delayed for days. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida hope to throw up roadblocks in the NY real estate tycoon’s path to the Republican presidential nomination.

Trump’s finish may have been most damaging for Cruz, who fired his top spokesman Monday for spreading a video that misrepresented comments Rubio made about the Bible. But Cruz harked back to his win in Iowa’s leadoff caucuses to remind supporters that his is “the only campaign that has defeated Donald Trump is this campaign”.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, center, greets voters while visiting a caucus site Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016, in Las Vegas.