White House hopefuls face third test
AFP
White House hopefuls face their third test Saturday when Republicans square off in South Carolina with Donald Trump enjoying a commanding lead, and Democrats battle in Nevada where Hillary Clinton is seeking a comeback, reports AFP.
As the race moves on, the two parties are on separate battlefields. In South Carolina, Republicans will vote in a primary, while in Nevada, Democrats will caucusgrouping themselves together by candidate to voice their support.
Trump is looking for a big symbolic win ahead of Super TuesdayMarch
1, when about a dozen states will go to the polls, with a quarter of the nominating delegates up for grabs.
Its crunch time, folks, Trump, 69, told voters at a North Charleston
rally, his final pitch before the South Carolina primary.
The real estate billionaire finished second to Senator Ted Cruz in Iowa on
February 1, but secured a commanding win in New Hampshire one week later.
Trump took no chances on Friday, urging all of his supporters to troop to
the polls.
I dont want your money, added Trump, who is self-funding his campaign. We want your vote.
Trumpthe onetime reality TV star who has upended the political
landscape with his brash style and controversial comments on everything from Muslim immigrants to waterboardinghas his eye on a particular date: March 15.
After that day, many of the Republican primaries will be winner-takes-all in terms of delegates. If his five rivals are still in the race at that point, they will be splitting the anti-Trump voteand increasing his chances of winning the nomination.
On the eve of the primary Trump led with about 28 percent of likely Republicans voters backing him, according to an NBC-Wall Street Journal poll. The ultra-conservative Cruz followed with 23 percent. Trailing were Senator
Marco Rubio at 15 percent and former Florida governor Jeb Bush at 13 percent.
Rubio and Bush are under intense pressure to fare well Saturday, as is Ohio
Governor John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, whose campaign has struggled to gain traction.
The past week on the campaign trail has been nasty for Trump and Cruz.
Trump repeatedly called the Texas senator a liar, and his attorneys sent Cruz a cease and desist letter over an ad airing in South Carolina that uses a 1999 interview in which Trump said he was very pro-choice on abortion rights.
Trump has since changed his stance on the sensitive issue.
Clinton bets on immigration To the west, Democrats were making their closing arguments in Nevada, land of the desert sun, for Saturdays caucuses.
The key issue is the minority vote: blacks, Hispanics and Asian Americans
make up roughly half of the states population.
Clinton, who won by a hair in Iowa and lost big to rival Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire, is counting on a major Hispanic voter turnout, especially among the hotel and casino employees in Las Vegas.
Since Wednesday, the former secretary of state, 68, has visited staff at Caesars Palace, the MGM Grand and the Paris casinos, in order to persuade them to join her camp.
The workers, who are generally not wealthy and very unionized, can caucus right on the Strip in Las Vegas, with sites at six casinos including Caesars Palace.
