In the months leading up to Tuesday’s caucuses here, both Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio ran the kind of campaign you’re supposed to run if you want to win Nevada. They came. They saw. They organized. They even pandered (a little). But they did not conquer.
As soon as caucus sites closed Tuesday night, the networks called the Silver State for tinsel-haired mogul Donald Trump. The speed of that projection, which came long before most precincts had officially reported their results, suggested an overwhelming margin of victory for “the Donald” — even though, unlike Rubio and Cruz, he never bothered to build much of a Nevada campaign at all.
“If you listen to the pundits, we weren’t expected to win too much; now we’re winning, winning, winning!” Trump said in his victory speech. He then listed the upcoming contests that he expected to win as well — among them Cruz and Rubio’s home states of Texas and Florida. “It’s going to be an amazing two months. We might not even need two months, folks, to be honest.”
Asked about Trump’s local get-out-the-vote operation, aides pointed to the Trump International Hotel, a 64-story tower wrapped in 24-carat-gold glass that looms over the Las Vegas Strip. Pressed for details about Trump’s voters, they noted that “a lot of people” work there.
“Mr. Trump has a giant building with his name on the top,” campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told Yahoo News. “Maybe that’s a good thing.”
Yet despite his lack of infrastructure, Trump triumphed for the third time in a row. With 91 percent of precincts reporting, Trump led with 46 percent of the vote; Rubio and Cruz trailed with 24 percent and 22 percent, respectively. At the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino, supporters cheered the news of the billionaire’s big win. One tried to sneak a bucket of Bud Light bottles into the ballroom. Secret Service agents openly worried about people getting drunk and rowdy.
By confirming, yet again, that the star of “The Apprentice” doesn’t have to play by the same rules as his rivals, Nevada, the first three-man contest to date, has created a dynamic that may come to define the rest of the rapid-fire Republican primary season: Trump leads; Rubio picks up steam; Cruz holds on, keeping his opponents from clinching the nomination. (Ohio Gov. John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson remain in the race, but neither was competitive in Nevada.)
Or Trump could continue to clobber everyone.
Tuesday wasn’t the first time, of course, that Trump has defied the traditional laws of politics. But Nevada was supposed to be different. Almost no one participates in the caucuses, experts said. The polling is notoriously unreliable. The process is particularly chaotic. The ground game could have a bigger effect here than anywhere else .
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