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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
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Nicky Woolf in Reno, Nevada

Trump wins big in Nevada caucuses after large turnout – as it happened

Interactive
Live results from Nevada

Here's where we stand after the Nevada caucuses

  • Donald Trump won what was, any way you slice it, a ‘uuuge victory in Nevada
  • The caucuses were utterly chaotic, though accusations of double-voting were denied by the state GOP
  • Rubio supporters also complained about caucus volunteers wearing Donald Trump paraphernalia, though again the state GOP said this was not technically against the rules
  • Despite heading to Michigan before polls closed - and going to bed before the results were in - Marco Rubio looks to have comfortably beaten Ted Cruz to second place
  • Despite that, Cruz, in his concession speech, was ebullient about his chances in Texas on Super Tuesday - which is March 1

This is an important hopeful note for the Rubio campaign:

A dispatch from Maria La Ganga, at Ted Cruz’s third-place ‘victory’ party:

Ted Cruz won at least one contest Tuesday night: the three-time third-place finisher’s optimism award. Addressing his supporters at a thinly attended party after the Nevada caucuses, he said: “Tonight we are one step closer to victory.”

It was basically the theme of the night. That and ‘Just wait until Super Tuesday when Texas votes.’

Talking to reporters after Cruz left the stage, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick scoffed at Donald Trump’s performance so far. “He hasn’t had to really talk about the issues in depth,” Patrick said. “Donald’s getting 33 [per cent of the vote]. What that means is two out of every three voters are saying there’s no substance.”

And he blamed the media for Cruz’s three third-place finishes, compared to Trump’s three wins and Rubio’s second place finish in South Carolina and Nevada:

“If Marco Rubio came to Texas and tied, you’d be saying, ‘Wow. Ted didn’t do very well’,” Patrick complained. “The media has shorted Ted in every race. Report the story on Wednesday next week when Marco doesn’t win a state and say, does he have a pathway to victory?

“And the answer will be no,” Patrick said. “There will be two people far ahead in the delegate count. I don’t know who will be on top, Ted or Donald...but those guys are gonna be way out in front. Ted’s done just fine.”

CNN showing their “candidate who tells it like it is” poll result: Donald Trump is on 86 percent in that question.

That’s as telling a poll as the “candidate I’d most like to have a beer with” poll that George W. Bush won in 2000.

Some quick analysis from Guardian columnist Richard Wolffe:

Nevada, for all its chaos and dubious ethics, has proven the decisive early state in both parties.

Tonight it set Trump on a clear path to the nomination with an unrivaled hold on front runner status. The other candidates have just seven days to stop him, and the clock is counting down fast.

And just a few days ago, Nevada effectively halted the momentum of Sanders. South Carolina looks like it will put a period after Nevada’s comma.

Not bad for a state where the caucuses were a shambles.

Here’s the moment, from Maria La Ganga at Ted Cruz’s “victory” party, when he promised his supporters victory in Texas on Super Tuesday:

Ted Cruz promises victory in Texas

“I gotta say: I cannot wait to get home to the great state of Texas,” says Cruz. I think he means it.

Meanwhile, it’s no accident that Trump tweets his thanks during Cruz’s speech:

The Guy Behind Cruz Wearing That Shirt is the new meme of the evening:

“The only campaign that can beat Donald Trump is this campaign,” Cruz says.

Cruz thanks his leadership team, who are standing behind him looking pretty glum.

They are still counting the ballots, so we dont know the exact result. But I want to congratulate Donald Trump on a strong evening tonight.

When we started this campaign nearly a year ago, there were 17 candidates in the race. The role of the first four primaries is to narrow the field. And it has done that.

History teaches us that no-one who has won the nomination without winning one of the first three primaries - and there are two people who have won one of the first three primaries. Donald Trump, and us.

Ted Cruz is speaking

You can watch a live feed of his speech here:

Oh dear:

Team Rubio circulating articles showing how big Cruz went in Nevada, reports Sabrina Siddiqui. Team Cruz doing same for Rubio. Meanwhile: Trump overwhelmingly won.

Congressman and Freedom Caucus founder member Justin Amash:

“Glenn Beck is still talking” is a thing I type a lot these days.

Updated

A complete list of things for which Donald Trump proclaimed his (and his staff’s) love tonight:

  • Nevada
  • Nevada
  • Florida
  • The rifle stuff
  • The Second Amendment
  • The evangelicals
  • Liberty University
  • The poorly educated
  • The country
  • The country
  • This place
  • This state
  • Las Vegas
  • You folks

Oh no, apparently not:

Cruz might be delayed even further:

Glenn Beck is now speaking to introduce Ted Cruz at his rally, so we’ve got at least two hours until Ted Cruz speaks.

More from Sabrina, at Trump’s triumphant party just now:

A defiant Trump took the stage to a racuous reception, indicating that he was essentially on the cusp of running away with the nomination.

“It’s going to be an amazing two months. We might not even need the two months, to be honest, folks,” Trump said of the road ahead, after dismissing the pundits who had written him off as a viable candidate.
“We will be celebrating this one for a long time tonight.”
Ever the braggadocio, Trump listed off the groups with whom he had succeeded in Nevada.
“I love the evangelicals,” he said, adding later: “We did well with the poorly educated. I love the poorly educated.”
Trump’s speech, while brief, was laden with the sort of triumphant lines that have marked his persona on the campaign trail.
“Soon the country is going to start winning, winning, winning,” he said. “You’re going to be proud of your president and you’re going to be even prouder of your country.”
Trump also took direct aim at his Republican opponents and party elites holding onto the hope that a narrower field would lead to his demise.
“They keep forgetting that when people drop out we’re gonna get a lot of votes,” he said.

On the glum side of tonight’s result, Maria La Ganga is at third-place finisher Ted Cruz’s party.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick warms up the crow waiting to hear from Ted Cruz, the third place finisher. “Tonight’s gonna be a good night.” And “Super Tuesday, Texas is the crown jewel.” And the biggest cheer comes when Patrick describes how Cruz talked about getting rid of ethanol subsidies: “Ted did the right thing and he won Iowa.” Politically speaking, that was a long time ago.

Waiting for Ted Cruz speech, with cold popcorn, lukewarm coffee, glum faces

This is interesting:

...briefly.

They let Dave Schilling into the Trump rally!

And that’s it from Trump - a short and sweet speech. “USA! USA!” chant the crowd.

Trump is hitting his campaign promises. “Gonna keep Guantanamo open, we’re going to fill it with bad dudes. Mexico is going to build the wall.”

He thanks his sons, who are on stage with him, for their help.

This was very exciting tonight, but I’ll tell you, it looks like we won by a lot evangelicals, we love evangelicals. Thank you.

He thanks Jerry Fallwell, Jr, who has been running radio ads on Trump’s behalf, for being “with us from the beginning.”

“I love the poorly-educated,” he says.

He boasts about “46 percent with the Hispanics - number one! I’m really happy about that.”

“We’ve had some great numbers coming out of Texas ... Tennessee, Georgia, and then Florida, we love Florida,” Trump says.

It’s going to be an amazing two months. We might not even need the two months, folks.

Tomorrow you’re going to be hearing, if you could just take the other candidates and add them up... they keep forgetting that when people drop out, we’re going to get a lot of votes!

“We love Nevada. We love Nevada. Thank you. Thank you,” Trump says. “This is a great place. Thank you.”

We will be celebrating for a long time tonight. Have a good time.

You know we weren’t expected to win this one, a couple of months ago. If you listened to the pundits we were not expected to win anything and now we’re winning, winning winning.

Donald Trump takes the stage in Las Vegas

You can watch a live-feed of his victory speech here:

More from Sabrina Siddiqui:

While Republican elites might remain in denial, the Democratic National Committee was ready and willing to declare Trump as “well on his way to winning his party’s nomination.”

“After years of pandering to extremists, the Republican Party is now stuck with what it created: a field of extreme candidates with views far out of the mainstream and out of touch with the American people,” DNC chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz said in a statement.

She also took a thinly-veiled shot at Rubio, whose campaign has shown a penchant for spinning losses into wins.

“The losers tonightwill no doubt try once again to spin their failure as a victory. It’s not.”

Sabrina also spoke to Ben Labadie at the Trump rally, who said he was visiting from Ontario, Canada, and had traveled to the US four times to attend Trump rallies.

“He says what he believes. He doesn’t sugarcoat anything,” he said.
Labadie added that he had brought his son with him, hoping the eight-year-old boy would learn something about the political process.
Trump, he said, was a role model for how to succeed.

The Cruz campaign is already spinning. In an email titled “Nevada, Rubio’s firewall: the place where he would win big” the Cruz camp say:

Marco Rubio started working early and put a significant amount of resources into making Nevada the one early state he could win. But despite the hype, Rubio still failed to beat Donald Trump.

Unfortunately for Cruz, the person Rubio is beating in early returns is Ted Cruz.

Ben Carson plans to stay in the presidential race.

“I believe that things are starting to happen here,” Carson said during a speech as results for the Nevada caucuses came in, reports Politico.

Then things get a bid Dadaist:

“What will eventually happen is that the people, we the people will actually want to hear real solutions,” Carson said. “It’s just a matter of time before they start demanding answers, and start demanding solutions but now we’re sort of in the ancient Rome stage where everyone wanted to go to the coliseum ‘bring on the lions and tigers see them eat the eagle.’”

But the retired neurosurgeon said he’ll be there with a fire extinguisher after Rome is on fire.

“We have a bunch of fire extinguishers, we are going to put the fire out and put the fire in our bellies,” Carson said.

You can read the whole piece here.

Sabrina Siddiqui is at Trump’s victory party, and sends this report:’

A couple hundred supporters who packed into a ballroom inside the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino erupted in cheers as Trump was projected the winner by CNN on jumbotrons at the front of the room.

“Trump! Trump! Trump!” they began to chant.
One man shouted Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan, prompting another round of celebration.
Nathan Byerly, who caucused for Trump in Nevada, said he supported the frontrunner because”he speaks his mind.”
Noting his candidate of choice had now won three consecutive primaries, Bylerly said it would be ill-advised of the establishment to try and reject Trump as the de facto nominee.
“I think there’d be a lot of backlash. It could be devastating for the Republican Party,” he said.

Checking out the candidate paraphernalia at the Sun City Summerlin Mountain Shadows Community Center on caucus night, it was possible to forecast the Republican results, Maria La Ganga reports.

Trump “make America great again” shirts and hats and stickers were everywhere. Rubio gear made a respectable showing among the hundreds of caucus goers. And Cruz? Two stickers. Maybe.

Donald Trump
Donald Trump Photograph: Jae C. Hong/AP

Drudge Report is calling not just Nevada but the Republican primary for Donald Trump:

CNN reporting a jaw-dropping stat from their entrance poll, about the Latino vote in Nevada.

Here’s their breakdown of that:

Trump: 44 percent

Rubio: 29 percent

Cruz: 18 percent

Kasich: 4 percent

Now, a note of caution: CNN themselves admit that there is a pretty jaw-dropping ten percent margin of error on this number.

But even so, Trump beats both Rubio and Cruz to the Latino vote, even taking that margin of error into account. That’s pretty incredible.

Supporters of Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump celebrate as television networks declare him the winner
Supporters of Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump celebrate as television networks declare him the winner Photograph: Jim Young/Reuters

Updated

Meanwhile:

Fox News is reporting that Marco Rubio “has gone to bed.”

CNN reporting that Donald Trump will speak any moment now.

Prediction: this speech is going to be good.

Here’s the scene inside the Trump victory rally, where Sabrina Siddiqui is on the scene:

...and the scene outside, where Dave Schilling is on the scene:

Trump wins the Nevada caucuses

The Associated Press has officially called the race for Donald Trump.

Now, the question is who comes in second - Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio.

Caucusing is finished across Nevada

The early results appear to show a big, big win tonight for Donald Trump. But it’s worth holding on until a robust number of precincts are reporting.

CNN and NBC are projecting a Donald Trump win. Which is probably a safe bet.

Worth noting that many of the candidates who have dropped out of the race are still on the ballot in Nevada.

This could be confusing:

CNN is reporting the results from Centennial high school in Las Vegas, a large caucus site where 40 precincts went to caucus today.

That caucus site - and it bears noting that this is just a single snapshot - is showing a ‘uuuuuuge win for Trump, and a bad loss for Marco Rubio:

Donald Trump: 44 percent

Ted Cruz: 31 percent

Marco Rubio: 14 percent

John Kasich: 7 percent

Some more about the disarray at Palo Verde high school, the caucus site that Trump visited earlier today:

While we wait for the caucuses to close in Nevada, here’s a dispatch from the Guardian’s Lauren Gambino from Columbia, South Carolina, where earlier today Hillary Clinton held an event with the “mothers of the [gun control] movement” – women who have lost their children to gun violence and policing incidents.

There, they made a powerful pitch for the woman they’re already calling Madame President.

Sitting alongside the mothers at a church in Columbia, Hillary Clinton pleaded for gun control legislation while working to maintain her considerable lead among African American voters in the state ahead of Saturday’s primary.

“Something is very wrong when we have these incidents where kids can get arrested for petty crimes and lose their lives,” Clinton said, speaking at a church in Columbia. “Something is wrong when African Americans are three times more likely to be denied a mortgage as white people are, when the median wealth of black families is just a fraction of the median wealth for white families.”

The mothers include: Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, who was killed by a neighborhood watchman in Florida in 2012; Geneva Reed-Veal, the mother of Sandra Bland, who was found hanged in her jail cell after being pulled over for a minor traffic violation in Houston in 2015; Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner, who died after being placed in a police chokehold in New York in 2014; Maria Hamilton, the mother of Dontre Hamilton, who was fatally shot by police in Wisconsin in 2015; and Lucy McBath, the mother of Jordan Davis, who was fatally shot by a man upset over the loud music coming from his car in Florida in 2012.

After introducing each mother, Clinton said: “That’s too many deaths, too many young lives cut short, too many questions still unanswered.”

Carr said she was initially leery when Clinton’s campaign reached out, but decided early on that there was “no catch”.

“I think the right candidate is Secretary Clinton,” Gwen Carr said. “I endorse her because she endorsed us first.”

Reed-Veal said the key to winning movement on gun control and policing form is to vote at every level of government. She implored voters, especially those who say they’re too angry and too disillusioned to vote.

“I’m not angry enough to riot,” she said. “I’m angry enough to vote for this lady.”

The mothers have been traveling to churches across the state on behalf of Clinton, sharing their stories and campaigning for the candidate. They were among a group of families who met with Clinton last year in Chicago.

“She walked in as the Secretary. She walked in as a political figure. She walked in as a presidential candidate but she walked out as a compassionate mother,” Fulton said, recalling the emotional meeting in Chicago.

Clinton was also joined by former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and her husband, Mark. Giffords was gravely wounded in a mass shooting in Tucson in 2011 that left six people dead. Since the shooting, the Giffords have become prominent advocates for more effective gun control. They recently endorsed Clinton and have attended campaign events on her behalf.

“Hillary is tough,” said Gabby Giffords. “She is courageous. She will fight to make our families safer. In the White House she will stand up to the gun lobby.”

Giffords added: “Speaking is difficult for me, but come January I want to say these two words: Madam President.”

Another fascinating tidbit from NBC’s entrance poll:

Counting of ballots has begun in many precincts

CNN is reporting that the first results will start to come in in roughly half an hour.

If you didn’t think things were ad-hoc enough, here’s a glimpse of how the ballots will be counted:

More from Dave, outside the Trump party:

Writer-at-large Dave Schilling reports:

I’ve arrived at the Treasure Island hotel and casino, where I’ve been greeted by an impatient throng of Trump voters. They’re not letting anyone up there, including me. I guess I’ll hit the penny slots.

NBC News have released their entrance poll results.

They show that in the Nevada Republican caucuses voters are older, and angrier, than in the previous primaries, and more likely to want an “outsider” in the White House - which can only bode well for Donald Trump.

From NBC:

In past contests, Donald Trump did well among voters who want an outsider. Among voters who are angry with Washington, Ted Cruz narrowly edged out Trump among in Iowa (32 percent to 30 percent), while Trump bested Cruz with this group in New Hampshire (44 percent to 15 percent) and South Carolina (44 percent to 24 percent).

More than one-third (36 percent) of Nevada caucus-goers are age 65 and older, compared to just one in four in Iowa (27 percent) and South Carolina (27 percent) and one in five in New Hampshire (19 percent) earlier this month.

You can read the full results here.

Some absolutely unmissable cartoon photoshop work from the peerless Darth:

Make America Drunk Again

Worth noting that while Trump and Cruz are both in Las Vegas for the Nevada caucus results, Marco Rubio is in... Michigan.

“Well we’ll be (there) in the morning but the caucus results (Tuesday) night are going to be late, I mean real late. And so for us, understanding that week later we have multiple states in play require us to get to those states and make sure we can hit all of them before a week from now,” Rubio told CNN.

A ‘uuuuuge interview by Paul Lewis from yesterday’s Trump rally:

Updated

Another observation from PBS’s Jon Ralston - the ballot-printing where he is was donated by the campaign of a congressional candidate:

Updated

The Nevada GOP, on Twitter, is still denying that anything is going on.

A report from Sabrina Siddiqui in Las Vegas, on the issue of volunteers wearing Trump swag:

While it is legal for volunteers at caucus sites in Nevada to wear their support for a candidate, questions were quickly raised over the legitimacy of the process when those distributing and collecting ballots at several locations appeared to favor Trump.

A source from a rival campaign, who asked to remain anonymous, said it was difficult to place faith in people wearing Trump hats and t-shirts.

“They’re the ones that are going to be counting the ballots. It’s craziness,” the source said.

“So if you’re voting for Kasich, you’re supposed to trust that your vote goes to him. The same goes for Rubio or Cruz ... It’s amateur hour.”

An official with the Republican National Committee pushed back against reports of chaos, saying concerns were only raised at “a select few” caucus sites and the situation had since been “contained.”

“Obviously we take reports of double voting very seriously and we will be reviewing ballots,” the official said.

This, from the Democratic leader in the Nevada state senate, on apparent Trump supporters wearing KKK outfits outside caucus locations:

Yesterday, your faithful reporter wrote this piece about Reno - the so-called “world’s biggest little city” - and its economic woes, along with its recent renaissance.

The streets of Reno are lined with the corpses of casinos. Music venues and bars are shuttered; those that remain open – like the Nugget, Silver Legacy and Boomtown – are sparsely populated. None of the glamorous patrons that stalk the brightly lit underground complexes of Las Vegas come here.

But the candidates do. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio both stopped here on Monday; Trump will be in Sparks, just down the road, on Tuesday. They’re here to set out their stalls to potential caucus-goers.

If the polling turns out to be robust – and it might not, since caucus results are more difficult to accurately predict than primary winners – Reno probably won’t have a huge effect on Donald Trump’s chance of storming to victory.

First place in the caucuses will likely be won in Las Vegas. But the fight for second place might just be decided here.

A neon sign arches over Virginia Street in downtown Reno,1946
A neon sign arches over Virginia Street in downtown Reno,
1946 Photograph: W. Robert Moore/National Geographic Society/Corbis

According to mayor Hillary Schieve, in the last year, the city has changed dramatically.

“We are going through this incredible uptick right now,” she said. “It’s incredibly exciting to live here.” Schieve said that her guess was Rubio would edge out Cruz, because of his momentum among younger voters.

There’s also a strong Mormon community in Reno. A good showing there might be enough to help put Rubio, who was baptised a Mormon during the six years of his childhood spent in Nevada, over the top into second place against Ted Cruz, who has strong support among very conservative, caucus-going rural Nevadans.

The city itself, Schieve said, has moved to the left in a very short time; when she began as a councillor, the council was dominated by Republicans. Now it is mostly Democrats.

But, she added, “I think that’s where the Republicans have struggled. I think that they have in some ways probably failed to inspire millennials. Look at what Bernie Sanders has been able to accomplish – I don’t think I’ve seen that with the Republican side at all.

“Maybe a little bit with Marco Rubio,” she added.

You can read the whole piece here.

A reporter on CNN now just said that someone in the Ted Cruz camp had briefed them that Cruz would be “happy with a third-place win.”

That’s a third place “win” in a field of four. Technically five, if you count Ben Carson.

An update from Dave Schilling, at Ed W. Clark High School in Las Vegas, who has found a caucus that is not currently a total disaster:

“Turnout is low due to a dearth of registered Republicans,” Dave reports.

In the sleepy gymnasium where votes are being cast, I approached a party volunteer who told me that the wearing of Trump merchandise was approved by the party, despite all the chatter online that it’s strictly forbidden.

He claimed that the only restriction on electioneering is of the verbal variety. When I asked for his name, he sternly declined, which seems to point to this continuing to be a contentious issue in the days to come.

We briefly interrupt coverage of the dumpster-fire that is the actual caucusing process to bring you a brief update about Glenn Beck’s hat.

It’s not good.

The state GOP tweets denying official reports of irregularities. But dozens of reports from Twitter contradict them:

An update from Maria La Ganga the Sun City Summerlin Mountain Shadows Community Center, where 10 precincts caucused Tuesday night.

The process was relatively smooth. At 5 p.m., hundreds of caucus goers who live in the 55+ community were lined up outside, snaking around the building,waiting to get in. One man shouted, “Let us in! Let us in!” But the bottleneck soon dissipated, and the residents came in: under their own steam, with canes, with walkers, rolling oxygen tanks, in wheel chairs.

At one point, an announcement rang out from the front of the room: “If you haven’t voted yet, have a seat. We’ve run out of ballots.” But by the time the speaker was finished, a women walked up waving a manila envelope. Ballots, just in time.

Chaos at caucus sites

Twitter is now overflowing with reports of caucus site volunteers wearing Trump gear.

Even more seriously, there are also reports of double-voting, which a GOP official just confirmed in a statement:

More reports of chaos at caucus sites. It’s getting pretty nuts out there in some places. Not all - but definitely some. Huge lines, disorganised caucus sites not checking people’s identification - we may be here pretty late, folks...

And more from Richard Wolffe of a ballot-collector wearing a Trump hat:

We have a live-stream for you of Republican voters caucusing in Durango High School in Las Vegas:

Republican voters caucusing in Durango High School in Las Vegas

The Guardian’s Richard Wolffe saw more of what we heard alleged earlier, about caucus volunteers wearing Donald Trump paraphernalia - which they really aren’t supposed to do.

Not one but two ballot collectors wearing Trump T-shirts. This at Durango high school in Las Vegas, where the state GOP directed media to go to for a great caucus experience.

He captured this picture:

Duelling big personalities: Donald Trump has just shown up at the caucus site where Glenn Beck is speaking on behalf of Ted Cruz:

Donald Trump, seeing what looks to be fairly epic chaos in some precincts, loses no time in apportioning implicit blame:

However, a fair amount of the electoral malfeasance I’m seeing alleged on Twitter is of caucus volunteers who seem to be biased towards Trump, not against him:

Basically:

Earlier, Dave Schilling spoke with Dr. Gil Mobley, a physician from Springfield, Missouri, who has come to Las Vegas to protest Donald Trump.

That’s a curious thing for anyone to do, let alone a 61-year-old man, but he refers to himself as a “serial activist.” He’s gotten himself media attention for medical marijuana advocacy and other health issues. He’s even appeared on Fox News to lambast the Centers for Disease Control.

“I have learned that one person can change the course of history. I personally intervened with the Ebola. That made me a national star for two weeks.”

Today, he’s eager to spread a different message: he thinks Donald Trump is a liar. He’s brought a Trump mask — complete with an ostentatious Pinocchio nose — and a speaker hooked up to his phone which repeatedly plays a song he recorded specifically for this occasion. He calls his song, which he says is a cover of BB King’s Everybody Lies a Little, I’m the Donald and I Lie All the Time. “America needs to wake up to the fact that he is the quintessential liar,” he says after removing his mask.

Today is only day two of his one-man crusade to thwart Trump’s presidential ambition. The song was just produced last week. We finished up with the guitarist out of Branson, Missouri.” His ambition extends to filming a music video for his song. “There’s a dance school in NYC that has ten members of the dance school eager to put a dance routine to it.” That’s assuming he can get out of Las Vegas without getting throttled by Trump supporters.

He alleges that he was assaulted 50 feet from last night’s Trump rally at the South Point Arena in nearby Enterprise, Nevada. “This gentleman was 300 pounds, blonde, about 6 foot tall. He body-slammed me and opened some stitches from my orthopedic surgery two weeks ago. I bled, and I have a little whiplash. I blame Donald Trump for this injury.” There’s no video proof of the assault, though Dr. Mobley did file a police report and is currently sporting a rather handsome purple cast on his right hand. I’m not sure that people get casts for such things, but then again, I’m not the doctor here.

Dave also sent this video, of Mobley outside the Trump hotel:

Meanwhile, on the Democratic side, the two candidates, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, are doing back-to-back live town halls on CNN. The South Carolina Democratic primary is in four days.

Sanders, who has been rather subdued today, barely raising his voice – which is pretty unusual for him – has just made his closing pitch:

What I do believe, is that given the crises facing this country, it does come down to the fact that ... it is too late for establishment politics, and establishment economics, and it is time to come together.

“We are all in this together as human beings – this is my spirituality,” he says.

Hillary Clinton is up next, but for now, back to Nevada.

Updated

More from Dave Schilling about the union protest outside the Trump hotel earlier:

As the Nevada Caucus, a contest that could prove decisive for the GOP race, fast approaches, the Trump International Hotel here in Las Vegas has come alive with protests, not coincidentally at the very same moment Mr. Trump’s ominous black motorcade pulled up to valet parking line.

Trump appeared like an orange spectre in the lobby restaurant, named as one would expect the DJT Restaurant. The Republican front-runner posed for a couple candid photos, implored the assembled onlookers — some in the Make America Great Again hats he sells in the Trump Gift Shop — to go out and vote today.

Across the street, members of the Culinary Workers Union, Local 226 have gathered to express their displeasure with Trump’s company’s unwillingness to negotiate a contract with hotel workers here who voted to unionize in May. According to Bethany Khan, the Culinary Workers’ Director of Communications, the Trump company filed an objection to that vote, which was overridden by the National Labor Relations Board.

The Union expects to negotiate with the Trump company, but have thus far been rebuked. “A union contract means everything for workers. It means fair wages, job security, good health benefits, and it’s what they deserve,” Khan said. She also told me that Trump recently negotiated a contract with hotel workers in Toronto, but refuses to do the same with the employees here.

Trump vs Cruz spat update: and a ‘uuuuuuuuge round of applause for whichever Ted Cruz staffer is responsible for this masterful twitter put-down in response to Trump calling the Texas senator a “soft, weak little baby.”

Hearing some reports of problems already at caucus sites in Las Vegas:

It seems like so long ago now - those halcyon days when Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, establishment pariahs both, were pleasant to each other on the campaign trail.

Those days are long gone. Now that Jeb! Bush is out of the race, the Texas senator is Donald Trump’s main punching-bag. At a Trump rally in Sparks, Nevada this morning, Cruz was namechecked over a dozen times - as a “nasty, nasty guy,” as a “liar,” over and over again, even, once, as a “weak, soft baby.”

Cruz, for his part, is striking back at Trump, reports NBC News:

“Frankly, I’m not willing to gamble my daughters’ futures with Donald Trump,” Cruz told reporters after a campaign event in Minden, Nevada - just hours before the state’s caucuses.

“The truth of the matter is if Donald Trump became president, nobody knows what the heck he would do,” Cruz continued.

“He doesn’t know what the heck he would do,” Cruz added.

But you didn't have to cuuuuut me off
Now he’s just somebody that he used to know Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP

NBC also reports that:

Cruz also notably ignored a reporter’s question of whether he still respects Donald Trump. Cruz - for months - would tell crowds and reporters that he “liked” and “respected” Trump, but in recent weeks, Cruz has yielded in sharing his “respect” for the front runner.

You can read the whole article here.

Updated

Las Vegas, the home of grotesque showmanship, is Donald Trump’s ideal stage, reports Guardian columnist Richard Wolffe, who says that the mogul in his natural environment – an arena full of fans who adore his political incorrectness – has “the spirit and subtlety of a hippo taking a mud bath.”

If voters get the leaders they deserve, then Donald Trump’s fans in Las Vegashave found an almost perfect match.

Along with their orange tans and sagging plastic surgery, the throng of several thousand Trumpiacs looked and behaved uncannily like their leader, the night before voting began in Nevada’s Republican caucuses.

Some people have bad hair days. And some people just have bad hair dyes. The bulk of Trump’s supporters at the South Point Arena tended towards the latter. They were overwhelmingly old and unhealthy, with a love of thuggery and a disdain of education. They adored their candidate adoring himself, pausing to take several selfies before walking out of the arena early.

When their candidate grew aggressive, they did too. When he spat out his resentment at a world passing them by, they screamed their abuse too. Senators, governors, business executives, Fox News anchors, protesters, Muslims: the long list of enemies was just a call and response in the Vegas chapel of Trump.

They say the 80s are back in fashion, but for Trump and his fans, they never really went away.

Donald Trump thrives in front of arena crowds
Donald Trump thrives in front of arena crowds Photograph: James Glover Ii/Reuters

You can read the whole piece here.

Updated

Caucusing begins at some sites in Nevada

A caucus is a meeting of registered Republican voters, where they discuss the candidates and then cast their votes - differing from the Democratic caucuses on Saturday, where the votes were public.

The meetings begin 5-7pm PST, depending on the county.

According to information from the Nevada GOP:

The meeting will begin with the election or appointment of a caucus chair for each precinct. It will then move on to candidate speeches, where each candidate will have the opportunity to have a caucus attendee speak on their behalf. Following the speeches, voters may fill out their ballots for the presidential preference poll.

Caucus-goers can cast their ballot and leave at any time during the process; in fact, Donald Trump this morning in Reno was encouraging his supporters to do just that.

There are 30 delegates available, and they will be allocated proportionally - Nevada is not a winner-take-all primary.

It is not known exactly when the result will come in - Reuters is reporting that they don’t expect speeches until 11pm PST - but caucusing is set to end at around 9pm PST, so we’ll start to have an idea of how things have gone fairly soon after that.

Updated

Maria La Ganga is in Las Vegas for today’s caucuses, but earlier in the week her focus was outside of Vegas to rural Nevadans.

Maria La Ganga leaves the bright lights of Las Vegas behind

In particular, Maria looked at the town of Elko, in rural North Nevada.

She filed this report:

Way up in the north-east corner of Nevada, Elko is perhaps best known as home to the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. And Basque restaurants reflecting the remote region’s sheep herding heritage. And White King, billed as the world’s largest stuffed polar bear, all 2,200lb of him on display at a casino. No, really.

But on Monday, the eve of Nevada’s Republican caucuses, Elko was the center of the GOP universe, which brings us to the Elko Convention Center.

The doors opened at 8.30am there for Marco Rubio’s rural rally. And 10am for Donald Trump’s. And 3.30pm for Ted Cruz’s. The Texas senator was supposed to talk to supporters at the Boys & Girls Club of Elko, but his state campaign chairman, Adam Laxalt, said earlier in the day that plans had changed.

“Every rally we’ve done has been a huge rally,” Laxalt said after Cruz’s noon rally in Las Vegas. “We’re going 750 miles today. We’re going to Elko and Reno from here. We’ve had to change venues, everything’s sold out, people are excited.”

Jeb Bush, who has since dropped out of the race, travelled to Elko in January. Ben Carson visited Elko in December, a trip that spurred his Nevada state director, Jimmy Stracner, to issue the kind of warning that doesn’t happen every day on the campaign trail.

Maria reports that this is because “Rural voters can be an important ingredient for success to Republicans, particularly when turnout is low. Complicated caucuses, which can take several hours, tend to dampen voter participation.”

You can read the full piece here.

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Nevada Republican caucuses.

I’m Nicky Woolf, and I’m in Reno, where I’ll be helming this liveblog, taking you through all the twists and turns of caucus day in this crucial state.

Donald Trump spoke in Sparks, NV, earlier today, where he was in ebullient form, striking out at Ted Cruz over and over again as a “nasty, nasty guy” and a “liar”.

But he has just arrived in Las Vegas to be greeted with a protest by his workers at his hotel. The Guardian’s Dave Schilling was there.

Dave sends this quick report:

Trump just got here, and walked through the hotel. On the empty lot [next to the hotel] there was a line of Culinary Workers’ Union activists who are protesting the fact that Trump will not negotiate a new contact with them.

On the other side is a man who claims he was assaulted at a Trump rally the other day - he’s wearing a Trump mask with a big nose.

We’ll have more on that as it develops.

Also in-state we have our crack reporting team: Paul Lewis, Maria La Ganga, Richard Wolffe and Sabrina Siddiqui, who will all be bringing you live on-the-ground coverage as the afternoon turns into evening.

Will Donald Trump rout his rivals, and by how much? Who will take the coveted second-place - Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio? Can John Kasich cling on?

Stay tuned.

Updated

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