With yet another resounding victory in Nevada on Tuesday night, his third in a row, Donald Trump has sent an ominous message to the Republican establishment that he is fast emerging as the clear favourite of the party’s rank and file for the presidential nomination.
Marco Rubio, the apparent candidate of choice for the party establishment after the exit of Jeb Bush and several others from the race, came a distant second, just ahead of fellow-Senator Ted Cruz, who still sees himself as the only one who can halt Trump in his tracks.
Defying predictions about the uncertainties of Nevada caucuses, Trump registered a commanding victory, polling more votes than Rubio and Cruz combined. The billionaire businessman bagged 45.9 per cent of the votes as against Rubio’s 23.9 per cent and Cruz’s 21.4 per cent. Two others in the fray, Ben Carson and John Kasich, polled less than 5 per cent each.
In terms of delegates count, it’s still a long race to the Republican nomination. One needs 1,237 delegates to win the nomination. Despite three consecutive victories, Trump has mopped up just 81 delegates so far. Rubio and Cruz have 17 delegates each.
All eyes are now on next week’s ‘Super Tuesday’ contests in as many as dozen States on a single day – Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia. The day’s outcome is set to clarify the picture on whether Trump is unstoppable.
“It’s going to be an amazing two months ... we might not even need the two months (to clinch the nomination),” Trump exulted in his victory speech, clearly eyeing the dozen ‘Super Tuesday’ States, followed by another 15-odd States later in March.
“A couple of months ago we weren’t expected to win this one (Nevada),” Trump told his boisterous supporters at las Vegas’ Treasure Island casino, remarking: “Of course, if you listen to the pundits, we weren’t expected to win too much — and now we’re winning, winning, winning. Soon, the country is going to start winning, winning, winning.”
Cruz, who has been at the receiving end of both Trump and Rubio over his campaign of “lies” and “slander”, projected himself as the only “consistent conservative” candidate left in the Republican field who can beat Trump, no matter the reverses he has suffered in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, after his victory in Iowa.
Trump, in contrast, touts himself as a “commonsense conservative” who can advance the Republican agenda and still do business with Democrats in Congress in order to break the partisan gridlock in Washington on key issues of governance. And Rubio calls himself the only conservative who can unite the Republican Party and defeat Hillary Clinton.
Unlike Cruz, Rubio has not gone after Trump in a display of mutual restraint thus far. Trump nonetheless cautioned the Florida Senator, saying: “I’ve been very nice to Rubio, because he hasn’t hit me. When he does, you will see what happens.”