US Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz won nominating contests in Kansas and ME on Saturday, staking his claim to be the prime alternative for the Republicans bent on stopping front-runner Donald Trump.
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Saturday’s lineup includes Democratic caucuses and Republican caucuses in Kansas, Republican caucuses in Kentucky, primaries for both parties in Louisiana, Republican caucuses in ME and Democratic caucuses in Nebraska, according to CBS.
“God bless Kansas!” Cruz told a campaign rally in Idaho, upon learning that he was projected the victor.
He said, “The scream you hear – the howl that comes from Washington, DC – is utter terror at what we the people are doing together”, and said conservatives are “coming together… and standing as one behind this campaign”.
Cruz, a USA senator from Texas who has promoted himself to voters as a true conservative, in contrast to Trump, also won a non-binding “straw poll” of activists at the Conservative Political Action Conference near Washington, D.C.
Cruz, for his part, said his strong showing was “a manifestation of a real shift in momentum”.
Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, called Trump a phony and a fraud who was playing American voters for suckers, and 2008 nominee John McCain, a USA senator from Arizona, said Trump’s foreign policy views were uninformed and risky.
“Everyone’s trying to figure out how to stop Trump”, the billionaire marveled at an afternoon rally in Orlando, Florida. Despite strong support from the GOP establishment, Florida Sen.
Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures at a campaign rally held at the Univers …
In Kansas, Cruz picked up 24 delegates while Trump gained nine. In Louisiana’s primary, there was no threshold to earn delegates.
The early estimates were that Clinton, who appeared headed to a smashing almost 50-point win in Louisiana, had won at least 48 delegates on Tuesday and Sanders 37.
With the Republican race in chaos, establishment figures are frantically looking for any way to derail Mr Trump, perhaps at a contested convention if no candidate can get enough delegates to lock up the nomination in advance.
U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at the Michigan Democratic Party meeti … But if The Donald is actually slipping, last night might lead one to think that the benefit is accruing to Ted Cruz instead. It was Cruz’ fifth win of the nominating race.
Cruz blocked Trump from a clean sweep, however, carrying the day in his home state of Texas and scoring victories in Oklahoma and Alaska. But Berry says Kasich has a chance if, as he puts it, “people wake up and realize we can’t have in essence a little kid being president”.
Mainstream Republicans have blanched at Trump’s calls to build a wall on the border with Mexico, round up and deport 11 million undocumented immigrants and temporarily bar all Muslims from entering the United States.
“It’s my opportunity to revolt”, said Betty Nixon, a 60-year-old Trump voter in Olathe, Kansas. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio had one win in Minnesota. Marco Rubio of Florida, who is also challenging Trump, criticized the media for fueling Trump’s rise.
Ahead of a debate Sunday night in Flint, Michigan, Clinton met with about 20 African-American ministers in Detroit on Saturday and said “the future” of the Supreme Court was on the ballot in November’s general election.
Despite Clinton’s commanding lead in the delegate count, Sanders vowed to keep fighting until the Democratic convention in Philadelphia this summer.
Tara Evans, a 52-year-old quilt maker from Bellevue, Nebraska, said she was caucusing for Clinton, and happy to know that the former first lady could bring her husband back to the White House. Ted Cruz in a two-man GOP showdown for the 2016 party nomination.
Heading into Saturday’s voting, Clinton had 1,066 delegates to Sanders’ 432, including superdelegates – members of Congress, governors and party officials who can support the candidate of their choice. Both Florida and OH use a winner-take-all method to allocate delegates, making the stakes in those two states particularly high. In all, 155 GOP delegates were at stake in Saturday’s races.
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These states were largely overshadowed by Super Tuesday contests in the rear-view mirror and critical contests soon to come.
