Update: With 100% of the vote recorded, 32.5% went to Trump, giving the celebrity businessman a 10-point victory. Rubio held on to second place with 22.5% and Cruz was right behind him at 22.3%. Bush finished with just 7.8% of the vote.
In a big day of American voting on Saturday, the early favorite for president on the Republican party ticket abruptly ended his campaign after finishing a distant fourth in the important South Carolina primary election. The departure of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who also finished poorly in the New Hampshire primary and Iowa caucus vote, apparently marks the end of a family dynasty in which his father and brother served as U.S. presidents in years past.
Otherwise, Donald Trump was a big winner again, finishing 11 points ahead of the runner-up in South Carolina, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is the projected winner in a close race in Nevada’s caucus vote on the Democrats’ side. With 88% of the Nevada vote counted, Clinton led Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders 52.6% to 47.4%.
The battle for second place among South Carolina Republicans was too close to call with 97% of the vote tabulated. Florida Senator Marco Rubio with 22.5% of the vote clung to a razor-thin lead over Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s 22.3%. Rubio now appears to be the last hope of the Republican establishment to derail the party’s insurgent outsiders, Trump and Cruz.