The Republican candidates took on a rambunctious crowd of angry voters and unprepared volunteers during the Nevada Caucuses on Feb. 21. Yet through the confusion and disorganization of the party-like event, by midnight, a clear winner of the caucuses emerged triumphant: Donald J. Trump. The start off of the caucuses was one giant mess; Nevada, who only began holding caucuses in 2008, has always had difficulty holding them. This year, with a turnout of almost 75,000 voters, the organization of the event was in mayhem. Angry tweets hit Twitter all that night of the poorly organized event; voters were misdirected to nonexistent sites, some places ran out of ballots, and a majority of the volunteers were sporting merchandise that supported Donald Trump as they handed out the ballots. Although there are no caucus rules against wearing campaign merchandise - as long as they do not distribute it - states such as Florida and New York prohibit it at their events. In Nevada, photo ID is not a requirement to vote, but voters must be signing in before they are allowed to cast their ballot. Reports of caucus volunteers handing out ballots to voters who had not yet signed in circled around, bringing with it a controversy that some people may have been voting more than once. In response to the allegations of voter misconduct, the Nevada Republican party stated that no caucus rule violations occurred that night. The results of the caucus were then calculated and released just an hour after polls closed at midnight on Wednesday: Trump came out on top, winning 46% of the vote and 14 delegate votes. Voters stated that they wanted a president who was “outside of politics” and could “tell it like it is.” “We are winning, winning, winning the country,” Trump declared in his victory speech, “and soon the country is going to start winning, winning, winning.” Trump seemed confident in his position as the Republican frontrunner. CNN appeared to agree, as their headliner that morning read “It’s Trump”. Sen. Marco Rubio came in second place with 24% of the vote and seven delegate votes. A majority of those who voted for Rubio stated that they wanted “someone who could win in November.” Rubio also gained the majority vote of those who decided in the last few weeks as opposed to months before. The Senator turned in early for the night (around 9:30 p.m. PST) before the results were cast, and no speech was made. Sen. Ted Cruz placed third in the caucus with 21% of the vote and 6 delegate votes. Prior to the caucuses, Cruz was targeted by both Rubio and Trump, who they called out for misleading voters and stealing votes back in the Iowa caucus. They were referring to when a representative of Cruz’s campaign was telling voters that Dr. Ben Carson was intending to drop from the race, misinformation that many believe gave Cruz his win in Iowa. Cruz performed poorly this time around, losing his grip on his support from the evangelicals, of which 31% of the vote went to Trump. Dr. Ben Carson placed in fourth with 5% of the vote, barely hanging onto his position in the race, as well as Gov. John Kasich who only received 4% of the vote. Both may be pressured into dropping out, as this is their fourth losses in a row. The results do not lie, and it seems as though Donald Trump will be the GOP nominee for the race in November. Stay tuned for results of Super Tuesday on March 1.
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