With the US presidential race hotting up, controversial Republican front-runner Donald Trump today steamrolled his rivals to clinch the South Carolina primary while Democrat Hillary Clinton narrowly beat Bernie Sanders in Nevada to boost her lacklustre campaign.
Trump's win, following his victory in New Hampshire earlier this month and a second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, gives the 69-year-old real estate tycoon a critical burst of momentum heading into evada's Republican caucuses on Tuesday and the slate of 13 states voting on Super Tuesday, March 1.
In another significant development, the Republican presidential pack shrank as Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush said he is suspending his campaign after a poor showing in South Carolina.
For all practical purposes, the race for White House has now narrowed down to five persons with Trump and former Secretary of State Clinton having an edge over the rest.
The other three major candidates in the fray are -- Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Texas Senator Ted Cruz from the Republican Party and two-term Senator from Vermont Bernie Sanders from the Democratic side.
Trump's win could unnerve the Republican establishment, since South Carolina has sided with the eventual nominee in every presidential race since 1980, apart from 2012.
"I want to begin by thanking the people of South Carolina. This is a special night," Trump said in his victory speech.
"There is nothing easy about running for president, I can tell you. It's tough, it's nasty. It's mean. It's vicious. It's beautiful.
When you win, it's beautiful," he told his cheering supporters.
His wife, Melania, also made rare public remarks.
"I want to say congratulations to my husband," she said, noting that he has "been working very hard."
In a tense battle for second place after Trump topped with 32.5 per cent votes, Rubio at 22.5 per cent edged past Cruz who bagged 22.3 per cent votes.
Meanwhile, at the Democratic primary in Nevada, 68-year- old Clinton and her supporters breathed a sigh of relief following a narrow win over Sanders.
Clinton beat Sanders by bagging over 5 per cent votes more than her rival.
"I am so, so thrilled and so grateful to all of my supporters out there," Clinton told a crowd of cheering supporters in las Vegas. "Some may have doubted us but we never doubted each other."
Clinton's Nevada win comes just a week-and-a-half after she lost to Sanders by double-digits in New Hampshire. Her campaign is hoping the win will serve to undercut Sanders' momentum as they head next into several delegate-heavy contest.
Sanders told his supporters he called Clinton to congratulate her. Despite his defeat, he vowed to take his campaign nationwide, notably looking past South Carolina, where Clinton is leading the polls, to a clutch of primaries on March 1.
Bush -- who so far raised maximum amount of money and spent millions of dollars as compared to his other GOP primary rivals –- suspended his presidential campaign following the dismal showing.
He received less than eight per cent of the total Republican primary voters in South Carolina.
When the presidential race formally kicked off on February 1 with the Iowa Caucuses, there were nearly 20 aspirants to the White House in both the parties, including three in the Democratic Party and a crowded GOP field of 17 candidates.
Three weeks later after the primary elections have concluded only in the three of the 50 States, the Republican race has been reduced to a three-way contest between Trump, Rubio and Cruz. Political pundits are not giving any chance to two other Republican candidates -- Ohio Governor John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson. On the Democratic side, the contest is between Clinton and Sanders.
The Democratic presidential campaign now moves to South Carolina, where the primary is scheduled February 27, while for the GOP the race to White House enters Nevada on Tuesday night where Trump, with back to back victories, will be the favourite Republican presidential candidate.
"The momentum since the beginning of this campaign has been unbelievable. I think we're going to do terrific there and the SEC is going to be very exciting. We expect to do very well there," said Trump.
An energetic Rubio also appeared to be confident to win the party's nomination as the election cycle enters a crucial phase.
"This country is now ready for a new generation of conservatives to guide us into the 21st century," said Rubio.
"The 21st century conservative movement is the daughter of immigrants from India who wanted desperately for their children to have all the opportunities they never did. Who faced a string of prejudice and yet because of the greatness of our country today, Nikki Haley is the governor of a state where it's always a great day," he said.
"And the 21st century conservative movement is the son of a bartender and a maid from Cuba who tonight stands one step closer to being the 45th president of the United States of America," Rubio said.
Now all eyes are on March 1 -- popular in the American political parlance as Super Tuesday -- when primary and caucuses for both the Republican and Democratic parties would be held in a dozen states. These include Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and Wyoming.
It is a do or die situation for all the candidates, as Super Tuesday typically represents a presidential candidate's first test of getting elected at the national level.
The importance of Super Tuesday was reflected from the very fact that within minutes of winning the Nevada Caucus, Clinton was on her plane to Houston, where she addressed her supporters late in the night.
After registering two wins out of three primaries, according to political pundits, Clinton remains the presumptive Democratic nominee but she faces a tough challenge from Sanders who is fast narrowing down her lead, which till a few months was more than 20 percentage points.
As per RealClearPolitics.Com, which keeps track of all major opinion polls, Clinton's lead over Sanders has shrunk to a little over five per cent, which according to political experts is a warning signal for the former First lady and the ex-Secretary of State.
On the other hand, in the Republican party, Trump maintains a comfortable double digit lead of more than 13 per cent over Cruz. Rubio is a close third with less than four per cent behind Cruz.
The challenge before Cruz and Rubio is how to break the Trump momentum.
The New York-based billionaire is self-funding his campaign, has no dearth of money, is attracting a large number of crowd to his rallies as compared to Cruz and Rubio and so far has set the agenda of this election campaign.
Trump, who entered the political arena less than a year ago last summer, has surprised political pundits with his two impressive wins in New Hampshire and South Carolina.
If the history of party's primary elections is taken into account, no candidate has ever won the presidential nomination without winning New Hampshire and South Carolina.
But many political pundits in the US still believe strongly that Trump would soon falter and a traditional politician would take over the race.
"A number of the pundits said, 'well, if a couple of the other candidates dropped out if you add their scores together it's going to equal Trump. But they don't understand that as people drop out I'm going to get a lot of those votes also," Trump stressed arguing that his momentum is going to stay.
With Bush dropping out, both Cruz and Rubio were eyeing his supporters.
Cruz, in his speech, appeared to be claiming victory to rally behind his supporters nationwide. He said that now there is "only one strong conservative in a position to win this race."
That is why Donald Trump "relentlessly attacks us and ignores the other candidates", he said.
Clinton, meanwhile, in her victory speech also laid out her vision of a new scenerio where the US is the new super power in clean energy, women's and minority rights are respected, and big companies play by the rule book.