There were no surprises at the Nevada Republican caucuses, as Donald J. Trump walked away as the big winner with 45.9 percent of the vote and 14 of the state’s 30 delegates. Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz finished second and third with 23.9 and 21.4 percent, respectively.
Dr. Ben Carson and Gov. John Kasich both won less than 5 percent of the vote, picking up one delegate each.
Trump now has about 6.55 percent of the delegates needed to win the Republican nomination later this fall, with 81 out of the possible 1,237c delegates. Cruz and Rubio are tied with 1.37 percent of the necessary delegates at 17 delegates each.
On Super Tuesday, the day in which multiple states hold primaries, half of the delegates needed to win the Republican nomination will be up for grabs as 11 states hold nominating contests for the GOP including Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and Alaska.
The business mogul expressed confidence Tuesday night as he headed into Super Tuesday, arguably the most important day of the campaign.
“We won the evangelicals, we won with young, we won with old, we won with highly educated, we won with poorly educated,” Trump said on Tuesday. “I love the poorly educated!”
Despite Trump’s three straight victories on the campaign trail, Cruz remained confident in his Nevada concession speech, repeating that his campaign was the only one that could take out Trump.
“History teaches us that nobody has ever won the nomination without winning one of the first three primaries and there are only two people who have won one of the first three primaries — Donald Trump and us,” Cruz said.
Both Trump and Cruz touted Second Amendment rights in their speeches last night as they head off to Super Tuesday’s many southern states. Rubio refrained from giving a concession speech on Tuesday, despite the fact that he had long praised the strength of his team in Nevada.
The next step for the Republican candidates will be Thursday night’s CNN debate at the University of Houston in Houston, Texas.
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