SAN JUAN: (Puerto Rico): Donald Trump amassed another win at a Republican caucus held Thursday in the US Virgin Islands, where officials flouted several GOP party rules, including holding the contest earlier than allowed.The caucus is the third Republican contest held this election season with delegates at stake, with Trump receiving 73.98% of the votes and Nikki Haley 26.02%.“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. “’The weather is terrible, but we’ve had a great turnout,” said Valerie Stiles, a 71-year-old who works in retail sales and voted early on Thursday.Stiles, who has lived 31 years on St. Croix, said many voters are angry about low wages and high inflation, adding that she was delighted the caucus was held before Super Tuesday.“The (US) territories are overlooked a lot of the time,” she said.Republicans have already had three contests — in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada — although the latter didn’t award any delegates and didn’t have Trump on the ballot.Joining Trump on Thursday’s ballot were Nikki Haley, Chris Christie, Ron DeSantis, Perry Johnson and Vivek Ramaswamy, although only Trump and Haley are still in the running.Trump already has secured two other 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 the U.S. Virgin Islands said they opted to hold the contest early to ensure the U.S. territory played an important role in the nomination of a candidate.
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