Trump rivals see reasons for hope in Republican race

WASHINGTON—Donald Trump’s rivals emerged from the second Republican presidential debate newly confident that the brash billionaire would fade if the nomination fight were to take a more substantive turn, and that they could play a role in taking him down without hurting their own White House ambitions.

That may be little more than wishful thinking in a race that so far has defied standard political logic. Trump may have had a lackluster performance in Wednesday’s debate but, to date, he’s proved every prediction of his campaign’s demise to be premature. Often, he emerged from such moments with stronger support.

“I keep looking for the speed bump that would knock Donald Trump off track,” said Mark Meckler, a leader of the conservative tea party movement. “I haven’t seen it. We’re in uncharted territory.”

Trump has drawn scorn from both Democrats and Republicans for insult- ing Hispanics and women, and remains a long shot for the presidency. And polling is notoriously unreliable at this stage of the presidential race and heavily influenced by name recognition.

But Trump’s campaign surge has proved surprisingly durable, unnerving Republican leaders who fear he’s damaging their party’s prospects of sending one of their own to the White House.

Even if Trump were to falter in the coming weeks, several dozen Republicans interviewed by The Associated Press after the latest debate said no candidate was in a position to seize control.

On Friday, Trump told The New York Times he was prepared to spend $100 million of his own money to win the nomination. For other candidates, fund-raising will consume the rest of the month ahead of the looming Sept. 30 deadline for reporting their money totals to federal regulators.