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Las Vegas – Donald Trump won Tuesday’s Republican caucuses in Nevada by a wide margin, US networks projected, giving the billionaire businessman his third straight victory in the race for the White House.
Early projections gave Trump 42 percent of the vote, with senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas trailing.
“Thank you Nevada, We will make America safe and great again,” Trump tweeted.
As early returns trickled 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.
Turnout was high, exceeding all expectations, with some caucus sites running low on ballots.
The remaining two candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and Ohio Governor John Kasich, came in at about seven and four percent, respectively.
The results underscored the enormous challenge Trump’s rivals face as the candidates head into next week’s all important “Super Tuesday” contests involving 11 states.
The real estate mogul had been all but certain to triumph in Nevada, with the big question being which candidate would come in second.
The contest was the fourth for the Republican presidential candidates, with Trump so far winning in New Hampshire and South Carolina.
He came in second in Iowa.
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.
It is also the first test of Republican voter sentiment after Jeb Bush pulled out of the race last week following a poor showing in South Carolina.
And candidates here faced the most diverse electorate thus far in the race, more representative of the US population as a whole.
Meanwhile, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders accused Trump and other Republican politicians of mounting a “racist” effort to try to “delegitimise” President Barack Obama.
Appearing at a townhall-style forum on CNN, Sanders said Obama critics’ questioning of the president’s birthplace was part of what he called “continuous and unprecedented obstructionism” in Washington.
Trump helped lead the drive to raise doubts about Obama’s citizenship in what is known as the “birther movement.”
“You can disagree with Obama all you want,” Sanders said, “but to say that the president of the United States, who won an election fair and square, was not a legitimate president, really undermines what we are as a nation.”
“Do I think at least in some parts of that Republican base there is race involved in that?” he added. “Absolutely. Absolutely.”
The campaign event took place in South Carolina, which holds its Democratic primary election on Saturday.
Sanders, a self-described Democratic Socialist who is calling for a “political revolution,” has astounded the political establishment with a surprise challenge to frontrunner Clinton.
But he faces a major obstacle trying to win over African American voters, who make up a large part of the electorate in South Carolina.
His Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, who leads in the polls in the state, hopes a victory will put her well ahead in the race to win the Democratic nomination before November’s presidential election.
She appeared separately at the CNN forum. – AFP
Online Reporter