Businessman Donald Trump won the Nevada caucus by a huge margin Tuesday night, making this the third straight primary the real estate mogul has won.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) finished second and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) finished third.

Trump was projected the winner at about midnight Wednesday, when about 3 percent of the precincts reported their results.

Before Tuesday, nearly every poll had Trump up in Nevada by double digit percentages, with Cruz and Rubio following in second and third, according to a FiveThirtyEight analyisis.

Trump earned 45.9 percent of the vote, according to The New York Times. Nevada assigns delegates proportionally, so Trump earned 12 delegates from Nevada in total.

Before the Nevada caucus, Trump had 67 delegates. With an additional 12, that makes 79. Rubio had 10 delegates and Cruz had 11. Both Rubio and Cruz each received five delegates, putting them at 15 and 16 respectively. To get the nomination, a candidate needs to have 1,237 delegates.

Throughout the night, journalists on Twitter pointed to some voting irregularities in some precincts, such as people voting twice and precincts running out of ballots, according to The Hill. However, the Nevada GOP said there were no official reports of irregularities.

The next Republican primaries will be held on March 1 — Super Tuesday.

Published on February 24, 2016 at 1:02 am

Contact Rachel: rsandler@syr.edu