Donald Trump Clinches Win at US Virgin Islands Caucus
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (NEWSnet/AP) — Donald Trump got another win Thursday at a Republican caucus held Thursday in U.S. Virgin Islands.
The caucus is the third Republican contest held this election season with delegates at stake, with Trump receiving almost 74% of the votes and Nikki Haley 26%,
“I want to thank you all. We had a tremendous victory,” Trump said in brief remarks by phone to those who gathered in St. Thomas to hear the results. “We expected to win, but we didn’t expect to win by that much. You are incredible people I will never forget.”
Voters in St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John flocked to a variety of venues, including a rum bar, to nominate their candidate using ranked-choice voting.
Trump has secured two wins in the Republican presidential race and is the only major candidate on the ballot in Nevada’s GOP caucuses on Thursday.
Republican party officials in U.S. Virgin Islands said they opted to hold the vote early to ensure the U.S. territory played an important role in the nomination of a candidate.
A GOP rule states that only Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina area allowed to hold primaries or caucuses prior to March 1. Any contest held before March 15 must award delegates proportionally, while Virgin Islands did so via ranked-choice voting.
Virgin Islands did not violate any rule, said Gordon Ackley, chairman of the Republican Party in the territory.
“We merely took advantage of an existing rule in the national Republican rules to award our nine delegates proportionally, except if the winning candidate wins with more than 50% of the vote.”
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