Republican billionaire Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton emerged as favourites after grabbing a series of victories on “Super Tuesday” in the race for the United States presidential nominations. RCP has Clinton at +3 vs. Trump whereas Cruz beats her by an average of +1.5 and Rubio by +5 based on polls conducted in the last month. She has earned it. Partly it was her success in cultivating strong ties with a wide variety of party actors: Some who supported her husband, Bill Clinton, in the 1990s, some who had signed on for her in 2008, and still others who were new to her camp this time.
Advertisement
Bernie Sanders won in four states, meanwhile, stopping Clinton from running away with the nomination even as he fell further and further behind in the delegate count.
Super Tuesday was the biggest single day of state-by-state contests to select party nominees for the November 8 election to succeed Democratic President Barack Obama. However, despite her impressive victories on Super Tuesday, the reality is a Democratic presidential candidate won’t win in states like Texas or Alabama in the fall.
Clinton proved to be a hot commodity in the southern voting states, racking up victories in Texas, Georgia, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, and Arkansas.
Bernie Sanders didn’t just win Tuesday night, he won big in every Minnesota Congressional district. The Democrat won in several states, including in a close race in MA. Cruz, as expected, won his home state of Texas and nearby Oklahoma.
With his string of victories on Tuesday, Trump extended his lead in convention delegates over Cruz, Rubio, Ohio Governor John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
“If this was anybody else as a front-runner, there’d be people right now saying ‘Let’s all rally around the front-runner, ‘” he said, adding, “that will never happen with Donald Trump”.
The results were a grievous setback for Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who has insistently argued that among the Republican candidates, only he has the political standing to compete with Mr Trump in a head-to-head race. Clinton’s big challenge, just like Trump’s, will now be to appeal to a broad electorate.
“We are going to wage a campaign that is about the future and about bringing us all together”, Hillary promised. Rubio, who campaigned extensively in Virginia but lost that state, only won Minnesota, a disappointment for a candidate touted by the GOP establishment as the best hope to derail Trump.
For the night, Trump won at least 234 delegates and Cruz won at least 209.
A conservative radio station reported that some half-dozen polling machines in the county were automatically switching people’s votes from Donald Trump to Marco Rubio.
“I can’t believe I would say yes, but yes”, Graham said when asked about the idea of supporting Cruz as a way of stopping Trump. “I’m going to get along with Congress. Paul Ryan, I don’t know him well, but I’m sure I’m going to get along great with him”. It takes 2,383 delegates to win the nomination. He will want to get the most delegates possible in all the other proportional states.
Super Tuesday was a massive boon for 2016 Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Advertisement
As at press time, Mr Trump had garnered 285 of the 1,237 delegates needed to win the party nomination.
