COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The Latest on the 2016 presidential election and two crucial contests Saturday: South Carolina's Republican primary and Nevada's Democratic caucuses (all times are Eastern Standard Time):

9:10 p.m.

Donald Trump's wife is breaking her usual silence and talking up his candidacy after he won the South Carolina Republican primary.

Melania Trump tells Trump supporters that "he loves you." She says they are going ahead to the next contest in Nevada and will see what happens.

She says her husband will "be the best president."

The Slovenian-born former model is occasionally spotted with her husband on the campaign trail but rarely gives any lengthy remarks.

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8:59 p.m.

Donald Trump is telling supporters after his victory in the South Carolina Republican primary that "when you win, it's beautiful."

The billionaire businessman says running for president is tough, nasty and mean. But he also says it's beautiful, too.

Trump is also congratulating his rivals, especially Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio as they battle for second place.

But despite the kind words, Trump says he goes "back to war tomorrow." He's predicting he will do "very, very well" in the next Republican contest in Nevada.

Trump predicts that as Jeb Bush and other Republican candidates eventually drop out, many of their supporters will switch to his side.

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8:45 p.m.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says he is ending his bid for the White House.

A teary-eyed Bush says he's proud of the campaign he ran to unify the country and advocate conservative solutions.

The son and brother of former presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush entered the race to huge expectations in June, and quickly fueled them with fundraising.

But he quickly slid in the polls behind some of his more outspoken Republican rivals such as billionaire businessman Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who have billed themselves as anti-establishment alternatives to the early front-runner.

Following disappointing performances in both Iowa and New Hampshire, Bush pinned his hopes on South Carolina, a state where the Bush name has maintained some clout. But Bush was unable to break into the top three in South Carolina. He would likely have faced pressure from GOP leaders and donors to drop out had he stayed in the race.

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8:30 p.m.

The final results aren't in, but John Kasich's campaign is already claiming victory in the so-called "governor's bracket."

Kasich's chief strategist John Weaver says in a statement that the race will now be a four-man contest between Kasich, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. His comments are similar to ones he made this morning on a conference call with reporters.

Despite Weaver's declarations of victory, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush remains in the race and it's still unclear whether Kasich will beat him in the South Carolina contest.

Kasich's supporters are gathered at a hotel in Wakefield, Massachusetts, the state where Kasich spent Saturday campaigning rather than remaining in South Carolina.

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8:15 p.m.

It's been a night mostly lacking of cheers or applause at the Ted Cruz South Carolina victory party.

The room remained only about half-full Saturday as results came in showing their candidate locked in a tight battle for second place in the state's Republican primary with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

Cruz backers stood quietly and watched footage being broadcast on two large screens from Rubio's party, where his supporters were shown chanting "Marco! Marco!"

The only brief moment of awakening for the otherwise cautious Cruz supporters came when Fox News broadcast a live shot from his party, prompting cheers from the crowd.

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7:55 p.m.

Donald Trump has won a majority of the delegates in the South Carolina primary — and he has a chance to take them all.

Trump will win at least 38 of the 50 delegates at stake.

South Carolina Republicans award delegates for being the statewide winner as well as for winning individual congressional districts.

More votes are needed in individual congressional districts to award the final 12 delegates.

Trump leads the overall race for delegates with 55. Ted Cruz has 11 delegates, Marco Rubio has 10, John Kasich has five, Jeb Bush has 4 and Ben Carson has three.

It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president.

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7:45 p.m.

Donald Trump's supporters erupted into cheers as they learned their candidate had won South Carolina's GOP primary.

Supporters gave each other high-fives and held Trump signs high above their heads as they celebrated. Some chanted "USA! USA!"

Hundreds of people are gathered in a ballroom at the Spartanburg Marriott for Trump's watch party, where they're snacking on cubed cheese and crudité, and sipping beers from plastic cups.

Trump is expected to deliver a victory speech later tonight.

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7:25 p.m.

Donald Trump has won the South Carolina Republican primary, a second-straight victory for the billionaire real estate mogul after his first-place finish in New Hampshire.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio are in close race for second.

Exit polls taken in South Carolina found that about three-quarters of Republican voters support a temporary ban on Muslims who are not American citizens from entering the United States. That's one of Trump's signature proposals.

A majority of voters looking for an outsider candidate supported Trump, providing a boost to the first-time candidate for office.

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7:10 p.m.

Bernie Sanders' campaign says it raised more than $21 million in January, bringing its total for the campaign to almost $95 million.

That's according to fundraising reports through Jan. 31 that Sanders campaign is filing on Saturday.

The campaign says the average donation amount was $27.

Sanders has made campaign finance reform and ending what he calls corruption in politics a major focus of his campaign.

Rival Hillary Clinton's campaign says it raised roughly $15 million in January.

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7:00 p.m.

Nevada's Democratic party's initial estimates are showing that 80,000 Democrats caucused on Saturday, about 10,000 more than most party insiders expected.

Still, it was well below the nearly 120,000 who showed up in 2008 for Hillary Clinton's contest against Barack Obama.

Clinton beat rival Bernie Sanders in the state's Democratic caucuses Saturday, earning her a second win in the nomination process.

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6:50 p.m.

With her husband, former President Bill Clinton, standing by her side, Hillary Clinton has told her supporters that "we're in this together."

"This is your campaign and it is a campaign to break down every barrier that holds you back," she said. "We're going to build ladders of opportunity in their place so every American can go as far as your hard work can take you."

Though she never mentioned Sanders by name, Clinton cast her rival as offering a narrow economic message that wouldn't tackle the full range of problems facing the country. Rattling off promises to lower student debt, reform the immigration system, combat systemic racism and improve education, Clinton promised a country of new opportunities.

"There's so much more to be done," she said. "The truth is we aren't a single issue country. We need more than a plan for the big banks."

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6:45 p.m.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders says "the wind is at our backs" despite his loss to Hillary Clinton in the Nevada caucuses.

Sanders says Clinton ran a very aggressive and effective campaign in Nevada that led to her victory in the Democratic caucuses Saturday.

He congratulated her for her victory and praised her effort.

But Sanders is suggesting he beat expectations because he started far behind Clinton and gained significant ground.

Sanders said he's heading now to South Carolina and that he has an "excellent chance" to win many of the states voting on Super Tuesday.

Sanders said the election will result in one of the greatest political upsets in U.S. history.

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6:20 p.m.

Hillary Clinton says Americans are "right to be angry," but also hungry for what she calls "real solutions."

Clinton is using her victory speech after the Nevada caucuses to draw contrasts with Bernie Sanders. She says the truth is that the U.S. isn't a single-issue country. Clinton spent much of the run-up to the Nevada caucuses portraying Sanders as singularly focused on economic issues.

Clinton says many doubted her in Nevada but that she and her supporters never doubted each other. She says to Nevadans: "This one is for you."

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6:10 p.m.

About four in 10 South Carolina Republican primary voters say that an important quality in a candidate is that they "shares my values."

A poll conducted by voters in Saturday's primary showed that being an instrument of change and electability in November are also important qualities.

The voters are split on whether the next president should be an outsider or a member of the political establishment. Nearly half said they prefer someone who has experience in politics and about the same numbers would rather see someone from outside the political establishment.

Four in 10 voters see the campaign of Donald Trump as most unfair, and a third said that of Texas Sen. Cruz's campaign. Less than 10 percent selected Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio or John Kasich.

The survey was conducted for AP and the television networks by Edison Research with voters leaving 35 randomly selected precincts throughout South Carolina.

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6:05 p.m.

For South Carolina Republican primary voters, terrorism is the top issue that mattered — selected by about a third.

The economy and government spending were each picked by nearly three in 10. Even so, three-quarters of the voters said they were very worried about the direction of the nation's economy, and more than 4 in 10 said billionaire Donald Trump would be best at handling the economy.

However, Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz are both seen as candidates who would best handle an international crisis by about a quarter of voters.

Only about 10 percent selected immigration as the most important issue. Asked specifically what should be done with illegal immigrants working in the United States, the voters were evenly divided. Republican voters were far less divided on the issue of allowing Muslims into the country. About three-quarters support a temporary ban on Muslims who are not American citizens from entering the United States.

The survey was conducted for AP and the television networks by Edison Research with voters leaving 35 randomly selected precincts throughout South Carolina.

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5:55 p.m.

John Kasich says if he spent the day in South Carolina he'd be doing nothing more than yelling at people on their way into the polls saying "Hey, vote for me."

With that in mind, he's campaigning in Massachusetts and Vermont instead. The two states hold primaries on March 1.

"If somebody yelled at me as I was going to the polls, I'd vote against them," he joked with reporters after a town hall in Worcester, Massachusetts.

He says he wishes he could have spent more time in South Carolina, but that he and his team "did everything we could do."

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5:50 p.m.

Bernie Sanders is conceding the race in Nevada in a phone call with Hillary Clinton.

The Vermont senators said in a statement Saturday that he congratulated Clinton on her victory. He says he's proud of his campaign and expects to leave Nevada with a "solid share of the delegates."

Sanders is touting his campaign's work to bring working people and young voters into the process. He says he believes his campaign has "the wind at ours backs" heading to the Super Tuesday contests.

Sanders is thanking Nevadans for their support.

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5:45 p.m.

Hillary Clinton's aides cast her victory in Nevada's Democratic caucuses as a sign that her new focus on increasing opportunities for minorities and poorer Americas — what her team calls her "breaking barriers" agenda — was resonating.

As the race has turned to primary contests in states with more diverse Democratic electorates, Clinton has increasingly decried the issue of "systemic racism" and highlighted her plans to combat the problem.

She started the week with a policy address in Harlem focused squarely on issues impacting the African-American community. In Nevada, she's worked to woo Latino voters with promises to tackle immigration reform in the first 100 days of her administration, should she win the White House.

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5:35 p.m.

Hillary Clinton's win in Nevada means she will pick up most of the state's delegates.

With 35 at stake, Clinton will gain at least 18. Sanders will pick up at least 14. Three delegates remain to be allocated, based on votes in the congressional districts.

The results of the caucus are the first step in determining delegates who are expected to support candidates at the national convention.

To date, Clinton remains far ahead in the overall delegate count due to early endorsements from superdelegates, or party leaders who can support the candidate of their choice, no matter whom voters back in primaries and caucuses.

Including superdelegates, Clinton now has at least 501 delegates and Sanders at least 69.

It takes 2,383 delegates to win the nomination.

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5:25 p.m.

As a small gathering of Nevada supporters waited for her appearance in a Caesar's Palace ballroom, Hillary Clinton took to Twitter to say thanks.

"To everyone who turned out in every corner of Nevada with determination and heart: This is your win," she wrote.

Back at her Brooklyn headquarters, aides cheered as she was announced the winner. Her campaign manager, Robby Mook, ran her 2008 effort in the state, giving the contest special significance for some of the staff.

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5:15 p.m.

Hillary Clinton has won the Nevada Democratic caucuses, rebounding after a second-place finish to Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire.

The victory for the former secretary of state over the Vermont senator gives her two wins to one in the race for the Democratic nomination.

Clinton eked out a win in the Iowa caucuses before Sanders posted an overwhelming victory in New Hampshire's primary.

Surveys of caucus-goers taken as they entered caucus sites showed that older women turned out in force to support Clinton, pushing her to victory despite her continued struggles to attract young women.

The competition heads next to South Carolina, which holds its Democratic primary next Saturday.

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4:30 p.m.

South Carolina polls close in a few hours, but for Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio it's never too late to pick up another endorsement.

The latest is Rep. Joe Wilson, the South Carolina congressman who gained national attention in 2009 when he yelled "You lie!" at President Barack during the chief executive's first annual address to Congress.

Wilson told The Post and Courier newspaper of Charleston on Saturday that he cast his ballot for Rubio. Wilson praised Rubio's positions on national defense and said the Florida senator can "bring positive change" to Washington.

Rubio is looking for a strong performance in South Carolina after a disappointing fifth-place finish in New Hampshire. In South Carolina, he's also picked up high-profile nods from Gov. Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott and Rep. Trey Gowdy.

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4:15 p.m.

John Kasich is assuring voters he's tough enough to be president after a woman in Worcester, Massachusetts, told him she worries he's "too nice" to fend off his GOP rivals and world leaders like Vladimir Putin.

Kasich is trumpeting a positive-only message on the campaign trail, refusing to attack his rivals. But he says that doesn't mean he can't take on the Russians and the Chinese.

He tells the crowd: "I don't want you to have the wrong impression: It's possible to be kind and at the same time very tough."

Kasich says he'd sit Putin down and tell him "no more nonsense" and tells the crowd he was the "first one" to say the Islamic State group needs to be destroyed.

And, Kasich tells the crowd, he's been known to be "brusk" and "tough" in his home state of Ohio.

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4:00 p.m.

As caucusing got under way for Democrats in Nevada, voters weighed in on their picks for the party's presidential nominee.

Marley Anderson, 21, a junior from Las Vegas, said she turned out at her first caucus Saturday to support Bernie Sanders because of his stands on social issues.

"He stands for the middle-class," Anderson said, adding that Sanders is "definitely the most trustworthy of the candidates."

Marvin Teske, 53, a security guard at a Reno casino, is backing Hillary Clinton because he worries Sanders would have trouble winning in the fall.

"All the stuff he is promising is never going to happen," Teske said. "I've always liked Hillary."

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3:30 p.m.

A flood of Democratic caucus-goers trying to get into a room at Caesars Palace became such a problem that it briefly brought the process to a standstill.

People had to register as Democrats before they could vote. But it was taking so long to register the hundreds of casino workers that they were in danger of exceeding their paid break times and having to return to work.

First, Democratic party officials said the caucus would begin with-or-without those who had been waiting in line. A few minutes later they reversed themselves, rushed everyone inside the room and said they will register voters while the caucus is under way.

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3:20 p.m.

Early results of an entrance poll of Nevada Democratic caucus-goers are showing that about half said they think the next president should generally continue President Barack Obama's policies.

About 4 in 10 say they want the next president to have more liberal policies.

Among those who want a continuation of Obama's policies, most are planning to support Clinton. Among those who want more liberal policies, most support Sanders.

The survey was conducted for AP and the television networks by Edison Research as voters arrived at 25 randomly selected sites for Democratic caucuses in Nevada.

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3:15 p.m.

Bernie Sanders is making an impromptu stop at a Las Vegas high school, walking past a long line of caucus-goers and answering questions about his campaign.

Sanders asks at Western High School, "Any questions I can answer?"

He is talking to voters about health care and getting big money out of politics. He jokes, "It's a never ending line!"

A reporter asked Sanders how he's feeling on caucus day. He replied: "The bigger the turnout, the better I feel."

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3:05 p.m.

Early results of an entrance poll of Nevada Democratic caucus-goers are showing that Hillary Clinton captured the support of voters for whom electability and experience are of paramount importance.

Bernie Sanders is doing best with voters who are looking for a candidate who cares and is honest.

Voters who say the economy is most important in their vote decision were evenly divided between the candidates.

Clinton has received two-thirds of the voters who care most health care, while Sanders is dominating by 6 in 10 voters who says income inequality is most important.

Those who said the economy was their top issue split about evenly between the two candidates, while those whose top issue was health care tended to support Clinton and those who said income inequality tended to support Sanders.

Caucus-goers were slightly more likely to say they preferred Clinton than Sanders to handle Supreme Court nominations.

The survey was conducted for AP and the television networks by Edison Research as voters arrived at 25 randomly selected sites for Democratic caucuses in Nevada.

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3:00 p.m.

Early results of an entrance poll of Nevada Democratic caucus-goers is showing that Hillary Clinton was backed by a majority of women, college educated voters, those with annual incomes over $50,000.

The survey also showed that moderates, voters aged 45 and older, voters living in union households, suburbanites and non-white voters mostly backed Clinton.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders did best with men, voters under 45, those less affluent and educated.

Sanders did particularly well with the quarter of Democratic caucus voters who identify themselves as independents, getting 7 in 10 of their votes. He also was backed by nearly 6 in 10 of the 3 in 10 voters who consider themselves very liberal.

Overall, whites were split in the Nevada democratic caucuses: more than half of white women preferred Clinton while about 6 in 10 white men supported Sanders.

The survey was conducted for AP and the television networks by Edison Research as voters arrived at 25 randomly selected sites for Democratic caucuses in Nevada.

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2:45 p.m.

Hundreds of voters are lining up to see Ohio Gov. John Kasich — in Massachusetts, not South Carolina.

Kasich is spending the day of the South Carolina Republican primary campaigning in Massachusetts and Vermont, states that vote on March 1. He's about to kick off an afternoon town hall in Worcester, Mass., following a morning meeting with in Burlington, Vermont. He'll watch the South Carolina primary results with supporters in Boston.

A cultural center in Worcester is packed with a standing-room only crowd waiting for Kasich and a line of voters is still waiting outside to enter the venue.

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2:30 p.m.

A major Muslim civil rights group says Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's telling of a discredited story about a U.S. general shooting Muslims with bullets dipped in pigs' blood could incite violence.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations National Executive Director Nihad Awad says in a statement that Trump's "inflammatory rhetoric has crossed the line from spreading hatred to inciting violence."

Trump was defending his support of waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques at a rally in South Carolina Friday night when he told the largely unsubstantiated tale of Gen. John Pershing allegedly halting Muslim attacks in the Philippines in the early 1900s by shooting them with bullets dipped in pigs' blood.

Pigs are considered unclean by Muslims and some other religious groups.

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2:15 p.m.

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is questioning whether President Barack Obama would have attended Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's funeral Mass "if it were held in a mosque."

Trump says on Twitter that it's "very sad" that Obama didn't attend Saturday's service in Washington.

Vice President Joe Biden represented the administration. Obama visited the court on Friday to view Scalia's flag-draped casket. The White House says Obama's decision about the Mass was a "respectful arrangement" that took into account his large security detail.

Trump has raised questions about Obama's birthplace and religion, falsely suggesting that Obama was born outside the United States and is a Muslim.

Trump's tweet came as South Carolina was holding its GOP primary.

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2 p.m.

Close call.

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders almost crossed paths just before Nevada's Democratic caucuses get underway.

First it was Sanders who stopped by an employee cafeteria at Harrah's casino in Las Vegas. Just minutes after he left, Hillary Clinton came in and was greeted with cheers.

Unionized casino workers are an important constituency in the caucuses. Their union has ensured that a room at each casino is open for employees to caucus in during special, two-hour paid breaks.

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1 p.m.

Bernie Sanders is kicking off his caucus day in Nevada with culinary workers at the MGM Grand casino in Las Vegas.

Sanders tells reporters that "if there's a large turnout I think we're going to do just fine. If it's a low turnout, that may be another story."

Sanders drew cheers from union workers at the casino hotel's cafeteria. He shook hands and posed for photos and asked workers if they planned to attend the caucuses.

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11:40 a.m.

John Kasich's presidential campaign is already claiming a victory of sorts in South Carolina.

A top strategist, John Weaver, tells reporters that however the Republican candidate does in Saturday's primary, Kasich's showing will be enough to "drive somebody else out of the race."

Weaver says he's expecting two candidates to drop out over the next week — including Jeb Bush. Weaver says that "for all practical purposes, there's no path forward" for the former Florida governor.

Kasich finished second in the New Hampshire primary, but the expectations are lower for his performance in South Carolina.

The Ohio governor hasn't ignored South Carolina, but he has focused resources on states in the Midwest and Northeast that host contests in March.

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10:45 a.m.

Ted Cruz has taken time away from campaigning in South Carolina to attend the funeral Mass in Washington for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

The Republican presidential candidate plans to be back in South Carolina later Saturday to await the results. Voting ends at 7 p.m.

The Texas senator has a personal connection to the high court: In the late 1990s, he served as a law clerk for a year to then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

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10:10 a.m.

Jeb Bush says he's "excited where we stand" as he faces a critically important test in South Carolina's Republican presidential primary.

Bush says he's going to "work hard for the day" and await results after the polls close at 7 p.m. He says "it's interesting that a lot of people claim they're undecided this late."

The former Florida governor entered the 2016 presidential race as an early favorite. But he may need a third-place finish — if not better — in South Carolina in order to remain a viable candidate.

Bush tells reporters outside a polling location in Greenville that "to be able to beat expectations would be helpful. I think we'll do that."

And his take on the prospects of a President Donald Trump? Bush says the billionaire businessman "can't win, plain and simple."

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9:15 a.m.

Will there by a "Haley effect" in South Carolina' Republican presidential primary?

Jason Sims — a teacher from Mount Pleasant — says he made a last-minute decision to vote for Marco Rubio, and that Gov. Nikki Haley's endorsement was "a big deal."

Sims say he was "kind of riding the fence" until Haley said she was backing the Florida senator.

Rubio is trying to rebound after a disappointing fifth-place finish in New Hampshire — and he's hoping the popular governor's endorsement will be a big boost.

Rubio wants to emerge as the go-to candidate for mainstream Republicans — and the chief alternative to Donald Trump and Ted Cruz in the race.

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8:40 a.m.

There's a lot of attention on Jeb Bush as South Carolina Republican vote in their presidential primary.

The former Florida governor entered the 2016 presidential race as an early favorite. But he may need a third-place finish — if not better — on Saturday in order to remain viable in the race.

Bush finished sixth in Iowa's leadoff caucuses and fourth in New Hampshire.

He's trying to break out as the establishment alternative to Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. But Bush has competition on that front, chiefly from Marco Rubio and John Kasich.

Without a strong showing in South Carolina, the Bush campaign may have a hard time competing in Nevada next week and then in the large number of states voting on March 1.