Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton reacts to supporters as she arrives to address supporters at her Super Tuesday election night rally in Miami, on Tuesday, March 1, 2016.
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As the results from Super Tuesday show, Clinton is still fighting on two fronts-first for the Democratic party nomination against Bernie Sanders and then, increasingly against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. The Vermont senator notched a big win in his home state, though.
The next round of voting in a busy March comes Saturday, with Louisiana’s primary, Republican caucuses in Kentucky and ME, a Democratic caucus in Nebraska and caucuses for both parties in Kansas.
Trump, who has turned American politics upside down with his outsider campaign, nationwide media blitz and crusade against political correctness, went into the day with his polling hitting new peaks.
“What we need in America today is more love and kindness”, she said. “It will tear the party apart, it will divide conservatism, and we’re gonna lose to Hillary Clinton and have the third term of Barack Obama”. There were reports that the party’s establishment was trying to gang-up against him. “If she hasn’t straightened it out by now, she’s not going to straighten it out in the next four years”.
The scope and scale of the victories will sow terror among establishment Republicans, who fear the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan could face general electoral annihilation. It’s the home state of Sen.
Sanders is making clear that despite the size of his defeat in SC he is nowhere near giving up his campaign, though the candidate himself appears to have rock-bottom expectations in the South. Trump displayed surprising strength with evangelical Christians and social conservatives, once seen as a natural constituency for Cruz.
“I’m not willing to concede that the Republican nomination is over, and frankly, you guys shouldn’t either”, he said. Rubio has made a late push in Minnesota, while Sanders has hoped Colorado is one place he can notch a win over Clinton on Tuesday night.
Faced with a party in turmoil over his ideas to build a wall between the United States and Mexico, deport 11 million illegal immigrants and bar Muslims from entering the country, Trump declared he had expanded the party by drawing in disaffected blue-collar Democrats who like his tough-on-trade rhetoric. But he has struggled to expand his base beyond young people and liberals.
If only white Democrats had voted on Tuesday in those states, Vermont Sen. Overall, Clinton now has at least 969 delegates. That’s compared to Sanders, who had at least 286 delegates. It takes 2,383 delegates to win the Democratic presidential nomination.
By 8 p.m. ET, all polls will be closed in Alabama, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Tennessee, while polls will close at 8:30 p.m. ET in Arkansas, the former home of the Clintons. Clinton once again demonstrated her pull with black voters, as she did in overwhelming fashion in SC over the weekend. Clinton also won in the South Pacific island chain of American Samoa. Clinton was supported by at least 80 percent of black voters in the Deep South and Texas.
On the Republican side, Trump has won seven states: Virginia, Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, Vermont, Massachusetts and Georgia. Sen.
With results in, Trump had won at least 203 Super Tuesday delegates, while Cruz picked up at least 144. The only question that remains is whether he can get over the 1,237 delegates he needs to cinch the GOP nomination. Marco Rubio, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Carson put together.
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That’s good news for Republican leaders in Washington and state houses across the country, who are deeply concerned about Trump’s electability, temperament and command of the issues.
