Donald Trump won big in Nevada<\/a>, taking 45.9% of the vote and winning 14 delegates. \u00a0Marco Rubio came in second, with 23.9% and 7 delegates. \u00a0Ted Cruz was third, with 21.4% and 6 delegates. \u00a0Then John Kasich, with 4.8% and 1, and Ben Carson, with 3.6% and 1.<\/p>\n Trump was the favorite\u00a0among evangelicals, conservatives, and even Hispanics. \u00a0And yet, again, the number of those voting for other candidates was higher than his totals. \u00a0Rubio took a bigger percentage than he did in South Carolina and was ahead of Cruz by a higher margin. \u00a0But if anyone is to stop Trump, candidates need to step up by stepping down.<\/p>\n Again, for all of the campaign effort and expense, only a handful of delegates\u2013in this case, 30\u2013were at stake. \u00a0But next Tuesday, March 1, is Super Tuesday<\/a>, when 12 states and a territory vote or caucus, with\u00a0595 delegates up for grabs (1,004 for Democrats). \u00a0For both parties, that\u2019s almost half the number needed to nominate. \u00a0That day could determine the nominees.<\/p>\n From Nate Silver & Harry Enten,\u00a0Nevada Was Great For Donald Trump, Bad For Ted Cruz | FiveThirtyEight<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Let\u2019s get right to the point: Donald Trump had a great night, easily winning<\/a>\u00a0the Nevada GOP caucuses on Tuesday. The 46 percent of the vote he received is by far the highest share won by Trump, or any other Republican, in any state so far. Marco Rubio placed a distant second, with 24 percent of the vote, and Ted Cruz finished in third with 21 percent.<\/p>\n If South Carolina, which Trump won Saturday, provided some bits of good news<\/a> for Trump skeptics \u2014 Trump faded over the course of the week and finished with less of the vote than he had in New Hampshire \u2014 his victory in Nevada was much more emphatic. Trump proved he could win in a relatively low-turnout environment<\/a>,1<\/sup><\/a> suggesting that his lack of a traditional \u201cground game\u201d may not be that harmful to him.<\/p>\n The result underscores that preventing Trump from winning the nomination is likely to require both that anti-Trump Republicans coalesce around an alternative and that they adopt a much more aggressive strategy in probing Trump for signs of weakness. On the first point, anti-Trump Republicans have made some progress: Rubio, who narrowly finished second in both South Carolina and Nevada, has received a cavalcade of endorsements in recent days<\/a> as Republican \u201cparty elites<\/a>\u201d have increasingly rallied around him as the top alternative to Trump.<\/p>\n But there are not yet many signs of a concerted effort to attack Trump. Instead, reports<\/a> from Politico and other news organizations suggest that potential conservative donors are largely sitting on the sidelines. Remarkably little advertising money<\/a> has been spent against Trump so far, especially given his position in the race. Rubio has also conspicuously avoided attacking Trump.<\/p>\n Here are a few other stray thoughts about the Nevada result \u2014 written early in the morning from New York and not, unfortunately, the New York-New York Hotel and Casino<\/a>:. . . .<\/p>\n [Keep reading. . .]<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Donald Trump won big in Nevada, taking 45.9% of the vote and winning 14 delegates. \u00a0Marco Rubio came in second, with 23.9% and 7 delegates. \u00a0Ted Cruz was third, with 21.4% and 6 delegates. \u00a0Then John Kasich, with 4.8% and 1, and Ben Carson, with 3.6% and 1. Trump was the favorite\u00a0among evangelicals, conservatives, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[3457,4373,3969],"class_list":["post-23376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-2016-presidential-election","tag-nevada-caucuses","tag-republican-presidential-candidates"],"yoast_head":"\n\n