Rubio: No voters are asking me to attack Trump

Las Vegas: In another controversial remark, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump today said that even a murder would not drive his supporters away from his surging campaign.

UPDATE: While Rubio did finish second in Nevada as he did in SC, he would lose to Trump by almost a 2:1 margin (45.9% to 23.9%).

Listing the upcoming primary states where he is leading in preference polls, Mr Trump predicted he will soon be able to claim the Republican presidential nomination.

“I think he’s got a fairly low ceiling”, Cruz said of the real estate billionaire, who won a third straight convincing victory in Tuesday’s Nevada Republican caucuses. This is coming off a 35.3% of votes and 10 delegate win in New Hampshire, and a #2.5% win, which includes all 50 delegates in SC.

Cruz said that the objective of the first four nominating contests is to winnow down the field, and though Trump has won three of the four primaries and caucuses, he won the fourth.

‘And soon the country will start winning, winning, winning’.

The candidates were fanning out to their next targets of opportunity as the lights went out in Las Vegas: Trump was campaigning Wednesday in Virginia, then on to Texas and Oklahoma.

“We might not even need the two months, folks to be honest”, Trump said in his speech wherein he took a dig at critics who have doubted his winnability. “The more delegates Cruz or any of the others win in the SEC primaries on Super Tuesday, the greater the odds that neither Rubio nor Trump will win 1,237 delegates by June, raising the prospect of a contested convention in Cleveland”.

Rubio, already campaigning in MI as caucus results rolled in, was projecting confidence that he can consolidate the non-Trump voters who have been splintering among an assortment of GOP candidates, saying, “we have incredible room to grow”.

To stop Trump, the opposition must be reduced to a single candidate. That puts him neck-and-neck with Rubio, who by that metric stands at 44 percent.

The lopsided 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.

Trump support accounts for 28 percent of North Carolina, likely GOP voters, followed by Ted Cruz with 19 percent and Marco Rubio with 16 percent.

“Until there’s some consolidation here, you’re not going to have a clear alternative to Donald Trump”, he said.

Trump received 14 delegates from Nevada and now has 81.

Overall, Trump has 81 delegates, and Cruz and Rubio have 17 apiece.

Frontrunner Hillary Clinton and rival Bernie Sanders appeared at a CNN town hall in the Palmetto State Tuesday night.