Line breaks in R Markdown text (not code blocks)

Question

Using the tufte_template rmarkdown file, I am trying to make a new paragraph (like \\newthought{}, but no caps.) I use two spaces, denoted here by *:

Answer 1

It's a rather old question, but I post an answer since it's the first hit when googling for "line breaks in rmarkdown".

If compiling to pdf, you can use latex macros. Substitute the ** in the new line with \hfill\break:

# Introduction

The Tufte-\LaTeX\ [^tufte_latex] document**
\hfill\break
classes define a style similar to the style Edward Tufte uses in his books...