Trump Storms to Victory in Nevada Republican Caucuses

Local Editor

Donald Trump stormed to victory in Tuesday's Republican caucuses in Nevada, giving the billionaire businessman his third straight win in the race for the White House.

With 20 percent of the vote in, TV networks gave Trump 44 percent, with senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas trailing some 20 points behind in a tight race for second.

The uneven result underscored the enormous challenge Trump's rivals face as the candidates head into next week's all important "Super Tuesday" contests involving 11 states.

As early returns came in, CNN and Fox News had Rubio in second place with about 25 percent of the vote and Cruz in third place with about 22 percent.

Relatively, Trump said in a speech: "We won the evangelicals. We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated."

Eventually, the remaining two candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and Ohio Governor John Kasich, lagged far behind in the single digits.

For his part, Cruz insisted he was the only candidate who could beat Trump and said he was now setting his sight on next Tuesday's crucial contests.

"One week from today will be the most important night of this campaign," he said.

Although the caucus in Nevada is not expected to have a significant impact on the overall race, only 30 delegates or slightly more than one percent of the total are up for grabs, it was the first contest for the Republicans in the US West.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team