US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was projected the winner of the Nevada caucuses on Tuesday for his party's nomination for the November 8 presidential election, several news outlets reported.
Early results showed Trump, who had been expected to win by a large margin, leading the pack of candidates by nearly 20 percentage points, while U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio battled for second place.
Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and Ohio Governor John Kasich, neither of whom had spent much time campaigning in Nevada, lagged behind with single-digit support in early returns.
The Nevada win is the third in a row for Trump in the state-by-state nominating contest for the November election. A billionaire businessman and political outsider, Trump's brash, anti-government talk appealed to Nevada residents, political strategists said before the Tuesday evening caucus.
Cruz and Rubio had both set their sights on a strong second-place finish there in the hopes that a win over the other would provide important momentum ahead of the 12 nominating contests on March 1, known as Super Tuesday.