Rubio battles to elbow past Cruz in critical test in Nevada

LAS VEGAS — Marco Rubio sought to elbow past Ted Cruz in an increasingly urgent race to slam the brakes on the Donald Trump juggernaut as Nevada Republicans delivered their verdict on the GOP presidential race on Tuesday.

Nevada was a critical test for the two senators battling to emerge as the clear alternative to the GOP front-runner. Rubio was out to prove he can build on recent momentum, while Cruz was looking for a spark to recover from a particularly rocky stretch in his campaign.

Capturing the sentiment that has been propelling Trump’s candidacy all along, entrance polls found that among early arrivals at the caucuses, 6 in 10 caucus-goers said they were angry at the way the government is working. Another third said they were dissatisfied with the government.

And about 6 in 10 said they want a candidate who is an outsider over one with political experience, more than in any other state so far.

A less-than-confident Rubio said of Nevada’s caucuses: “I think it’s the most unpredictable of all the races we’ve had so far. You go in really knowing less about this than any other election. We’ll see.”

Cruz, a fiery conservative popular among voters on the GOP’s right, on Monday asked for and received the resignation of a senior aide who spread an inaccurate news report suggesting Rubio had criticized the Bible. That was just days after Cruz finished a disappointing third in South Carolina after spending much of the past two weeks denying charges of dishonest campaign tactics and defending his integrity.

Another disappointing finish in Nevada’s low-turnout caucuses would raise new questions about Cruz’s viability heading into a crucial batch of Super Tuesday states on March 1.

“There’s something wrong with this guy,” Trump said with his usual measure of tact during a massive Las Vegas rally Monday night. The former reality television star tweeted on Tuesday, “He used him as a scape goat-fired like a dog! Ted panicked.”

Nevada’s caucusing played out in schools, community centers and places of worship across the state — a process that’s been chaotic in the past.

Count Tracy Brigida, fed up after her husband was laid off from his mining job, among those caucusing for Trump.

“I want a businessman to run the biggest business in the world,” Brigida said as she caucused at a Las Vegas high school.

Jeremy Haight drove straight from his marketing job to caucus for Marco Rubio at the same high school.

“He’s the most level-headed. He hasn’t said anything stupid or crazy … which is really what I think the country needs,” Haight said.

It was Cruz for Megan Ortega, who declared: “He’s consistent, he’s bold and he’s a class act.”

Nevada state marks the first Republican election in the West, the fourth of the campaign. And it’s not one that’s gotten much attention from the GOP candidates.

Through Tuesday, the Republican candidates and the super PACs supporting them had spent a combined $3.8 million on television and radio advertisements in Nevada — less than a tenth of the $39.3 million spent ahead of last weekend’s South Carolina primary, according to Kantar Media’s CMAG data.

That primary reduced a GOP field that included a dozen candidates a month ago to five, with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush the latest to drop out after a disappointing finish in South Carolina. Ohio Gov. John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson remain in the race and could play spoilers as the trio of leading candidates, Trump, Cruz and Rubio, battle for delegates with an increasing sense of urgency.

Trump’s rivals concede they are running out of time to stop him.

The election calendar suggests that if the New York billionaire’s rivals don’t slow him by mid-March, they may not ever. Trump swept all of South Carolina’s 50 delegates, giving him a total of 67 compared to Cruz and Rubio who have 11 and 10, respectively.

There are 30 delegates at stake in Nevada, awarded to candidates in proportion to their share of the statewide vote so long as they earn at least 3.33 percent. While proportional contests give Trump’s weaker rivals a chance to accumulate delegates, proportional contests also make it difficult to catch up if one candidate runs up a significant lead.

After finishing third in Iowa, fifth in New Hampshire and second in South Carolina, Rubio needs a win soon to support the idea that he is the prime heir to Bush’s supporters.

Indeed, Republican establishment heavyweights have been flooding to Rubio in recent days, including Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis and Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch. South Florida’s three Cuban-American members of Congress announced their support for him in the hours before the Nevada contest.

The entrance poll survey was conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks by Edison Research as Republican voters arrived at 25 randomly selected caucus sites in Nevada. The preliminary results include interviews with 1,255 Republican caucus-goers and have a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.