Before Tuesday, Clinton was expected to cruise through those races and put decisive distance between herself and the Vermont senator in the delegate race.
Advertisement
Just as Clinton and her allies began moving to ease Sanders aside and prepare for the general election, the results in MI suddenly make next Tuesday’s contests here in OH, and in Missouri and IL, seem more competitive.
Sanders’ victory in MI revealed Clinton’s possible weakness in the Rust Belt states that might be an opening for Sanders to close the 200-delegate gap between them. Making up that deficit wouldn’t be impossible, unless the blustery Trump wins both OH, with its 66 delegates, and Florida, with 99, on Tuesday.
Sanders, meanwhile, said MI signaled “that we are a national campaign”.
Primaries are about a lot of things: building coalitions, testing which issues mobilize voters, discovering a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses.
Both Clinton and Sanders have increased their presence in OH as the state’s primary approaches, including multiple events scheduled in Cleveland. While Clinton has dismissed the probe as a “security review”, reports last week indicated that the investigation had turned criminal. Clinton also has an 8-point lead among men, and even has the advantage over the democratic socialist among those who describe themselves as “very liberal”. She takes 52 percent support against 43 percent for Sanders.
In his biggest upset of the campaign, Sanders squeaked past Hillary Clinton by less than 2 percentage points, a margin of about 20,000 votes out of more than 1.1 million cast.
If he secures the nomination, Trump will seek to become the first Republican to win MI in a presidential election since 1988, when George H.W. Bush was elected.
Clinton also led among self-described Democrats who made up 69% of those voting, with a 57%-41% edge over Sanders.
Trump built his victories in a state in the industrial Midwest and another in the Deep South with broad appeal across many demographics, winning evangelical Christians, Republicans, independents, those who wanted an outsider and those who said they were angry about how the federal government is working, exit polls showed.
The results Tuesday escalate pressure on Kasich and Rubio on the cusp of must-win races for each.
As the competing calls for unity suggest, the Republican Party’s 2016 contest is far from settled a week before high-stakes contests in Florida and OH that could finish off home-state candidates Marco Rubio and John Kasich or resurrect their anemic candidacies. “Bernie Sanders in Florida”, said Quinnipiac poling director Peter A. Brown.
“I’m not here asking any of you to pledge your support of me”, Cruz said, to thunderous applause and cheers.
The poll comes one week before Ohio’s all-important March 15 primary, where 143 Democratic delegates are at stake.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich was in a fight for second place in MI and hoping a good showing would give him a boost heading into next week’s crucial contest in his home state. Clinton was believed to have a lock on minorities.
Clinton remains heavily favored to win the Democratic nomination.
Advertisement
It’s not a big difference compared with those Southern states, but considering Sanders’ narrow win in MI, any additional young voters who favor him so heavily (two-thirds of the under-45 set in MI voted for Sanders) might have been what helped push him over the top.
