After months of denial that the billionaire businessman could swipe the nomination from more establishment candidates, disconsolate Republican senators and House members dealt with a growing inevitability after Trump’s wins in seven states Tuesday cemented his front-runner status. Marco Rubio was at the West Miami City Hall to put in his vote for president.
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With 12 states awarding delegates Tuesday, see how the delegate totals shake out. Sanders will also look to a glut of caucuses – in which he has performed well – at the end of March, especially one in Washington state, where more than 100 delegates are at stake. Cruz, at 230, sits in distant second and Rubio’s 113 are good for third.
While Trump’s rivals promised to fight on, Republicans remained deeply divided over the preferred alternative.
March 15 is the first date to watch. We will update this story as numbers continue to come in.
AM NOT, DID TOO: The rhetoric in the GOP race took a turn for the worse before Super Tuesday, featuring a series of taunts between Trump and Rubio about potential pants-wetting, bad spray tans and overactive sweat glands.
Anti-Trump Republicans believe handing the nomination to Trump is tantamount to political suicide, as polling shows he is unlikely win in the general election against probable Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. “And, after tonight, we have seen that our campaign is the only campaign that has beaten, that can beat, and that will beat Donald Trump”.
In his victory speech on Tuesday night, the real estate mogul and reality TV star set aside his usual boastfulness to offer an olive branch to party leaders. However, he was not expected to endorse a candidate or announce a late entry into the race himself.
Trump’s gains on Super Tuesday are likely to worry many in the Republican establishment who fear that he will be easily defeated in presidential elections on November 8 if Clinton becomes the Democratic nominee.
Bernie Sanders, who is competing against Clinton for the Democratic nomination, won his home state of Vermont, along with Colorado, Minnesota and Oklahoma.
“There are some states that are going to be favorable to [Cruz]”, Cruz supporter and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told Fox News. Cruz had been counting on more appeal in the Southern states and among evangelical Christian voters.
Rubio is putting it all on the line in Florida, meanwhile, vowing Wednesday that he’ll win.
“Then we’re going into MI which is a critical showdown state in this race. He’s got precisely that and it’s going nowhere for the time being”, the newsletter said.
Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, who saw Trump win his state on Tuesday, said Americans on both sides of the aisle are “creating their own insurgency” as a fractious Congress has failed to resolve critical issues.
Let’s do some quick political math. If Republican primary voters choose Donald Trump as their candidate – and they’re certainly headed that way – they will have essentially chosen Hillary Clinton to lead the country.
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He also jabbed at the “lightweight” Rubio for having a “tough night”.
