Businessman Donald Trump rode a wave of momentum to win big in South Carolina on Saturday, Feb. 20, taking first place in the primary competition by a margin of more than 10 percentage points. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won the Nevada Caucuses on the same day by a somewhat thinner margin.
More recent polling leading up to the South Carolina Republican Primary indicated a much tighter race, but Trump finished far ahead of Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who took 23 percent compared to Trump's 36 percent and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who finished at 22 percent.
Rubio must continue battling Ohio Gov. John Kasich — who outperformed him in New Hampshire but finished fifth in South Carolina — for the vote of the more moderate members of the party.
However, Rubio congratulated Trump and declared the nomination contest a three-person race after his second place finish.
"This has become a three-person race, and we will win the nomination," Rubio told supporters at his post-results rally. "Tonight, here in South Carolina, the message is pretty clear. This country is now ready for a new generation of conservatives to guide us into the 21st century."
A Cuban-American, Rubio's second place finish was powered in-part by endorsements from Gov. Nicki Haley, South Carolina's first Indian-American governor and Sen. Tim Scott, currently the GOP's only African American senator and the first from the state.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush announced he would be suspending his campaign following a fourth place finish in a state where his brother, and former president, George W. Bush has an approval rating upward of 70 percent. South Carolina was generally regarded as his last chance to emerge as the establishment front-runner.
Polling in Nevada was more scarce, but Clinton edged out Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders by close to five percentage points, somewhat exceeding expectations of a tighter race as Sanders gained on her in the days leading up to the primaries.
Clinton's campaign planned to fly to Texas ahead of the March 1 primaries, downplaying expectations for Nevada, according to the New York Times.
However, Clinton did not appear surprised in her victory speech after she was projected the winner by the Associated Press.
"I am so, so thrilled and so grateful to all of my supporters out there," Clinton said. "Some may have doubted us, but we never doubted each other."
Clinton's win was powered by caucus-goers in the urban south of Nevada, in and around Las Vegas, according to county-by-county election results. Sanders bested Clinton in the more rural northern areas of Nevada.
A large portion of her site victories occurred along the Las Vegas strip at caucus sites held inside many casinos, where culinary and hospitality workers make up a large voting bloc at those sites, according to the Wall Street Journal.
"I want to thank each and every one of you," Clinton said in her speech. "You turned out in every corner of this state with determination and purpose — hotel and casino workers who never wavered."
Despite polling that has shown Sanders as weaker among minority voters, entrance polling performed by CNN on Saturday indicated Sanders won the majority of the large Latino population's vote in Nevada.
However, Clinton took the support of more than 70 percent of Nevada's African-American caucus-goers. Her lead among African-American voters is evidence of what has been regarded as a "firewall" going in to the southern primaries, where African Americans make up large portions of the Democratic voting bloc.
The next month of the nomination season will boast more than twenty primary contests across the country, beginning with the Nevada Republican Caucuses on Tuesday, Feb. 23 and the South Carolina Democratic Primary on Saturday, Feb. 27.
Fourteen states and American Samoa will hold their primaries Super Tuesday, March 1, now being dubbed the SEC Primary because of the large number of southern states voting on that day — among them will be Alabama.
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