Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

politics:

Trump, Cruz, Christie win fans at Las Vegas watch party

Stage Set For GOP Debate

Steve Marcus

Reporters and photographers walk by a monitor for the CNN Republican Presidential Debate in the Venetian theater Tuesday Dec. 15, 2015.

Eight miles south of the Venetian, Republicans hosted a debate watch party at the Silverton resort. Bartenders doled out drinks on one end of the room, while Trump T-shirts for sale ($20) adorned a wall on the opposite side.

As the candidates introduced themselves, the level of applause indicated a slight Trump edge — a theme that continued over the course of the two-hour debate.

"Of all the various candidates out there, the reason why Donald Trump is carrying the nation by 40-plus percent is because he is talking to the people," said Robert Crooks, founder and leader of the Mountain Minutemen, who attended the watch party with his wife.

Trump's performance in the debate, Crooks said afterward, should be enough to convince the GOP that Trump would make the best presidential nominee.

"Donald Trump is a breath of fresh air," he said. "I've got grandkids. We have to think of the rest of this nation for eternity."

Other candidates weren't dismissed. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz scored boisterous cheers from the crowd when he said, "We will not be admitting jihadists as refugees."

The topic, which intensified after the mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., and Trump's comments about Muslims, drew hearty clapping throughout the evening as the Republican candidates largely called for greater scrutiny of those entering the United States.

And New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie won over at least one viewer — Rick Delavega from Washington, D.C. Delavega traveled to Las Vegas hoping to land a ticket to the debate, but when that didn't pan out, he wound up at the Silverton watch party.

He entered rooting for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio but was impressed by Christie's ability to cut through all the rhetoric.

"The arguments back and forth about the issues don't get us anywhere," said Delavega, who identifies as a moderate who leans to the right. "I don't want to see the party get divided."

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