Trump rolls to easy victory in Nevada

Donald Trump rolled to a third straight victory in the GOP presidential race Tuesday, crushing Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the Nevada caucuses.

Trump came out for his brief victory speech less than an hour after the polls closed, greeting an enthusiastic crowd at the Treasure Island hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

The developer won just about every group, from voters with high school diplomas or less to those with postgraduate degrees.

Despite his call for a wall on the Mexican border and the immediate deportation of all undocumented residents, Trump even won 44 percent of the Latino vote, according to CNN’s entrance poll.

The Nevada battle for second place may have been just as important for Republicans, with Rubio and Cruz each jousting for the chance to convince increasingly nervous GOP leaders that he is the only alternative to having Trump on the November ballot.

[...] Trump’s overwhelming numbers made it hard for any of his opponents to claim even a moral victory.

With nearly every Republican voter unhappy with the status quo, it’s no surprise that 61 percent said they wanted the next president to be an outsider, versus 33 percent who preferred someone with political experience.

[...] if Nevada’s voters are representative of the rest of the country, it’s unclear where — or even how — any Republican stops Trump’s surge toward the nomination at the Cleveland convention in July.

Trump’s easy win in South Carolina last Saturday sent the GOP establishment — and some non-Republican opinion leaders — into a panic as they realized that the in-your-face businessman very well could become the party’s nominee.

[...] in the past couple of days, both the Washington Post and the Boston Globe — neither known for a pro-Republican stance — have come out with editorials urging GOP voters to stop Trump.

Party leaders who support and celebrate his victory will be accomplices to an attack on the fundamental values of American democracy.

While Cruz congratulated Trump on a “strong evening” Tuesday, he called on the “65 percent of Americans” who don’t want Trump as the Republican nominee to back his campaign.