Trump contends he can grow the party and appeal to working-class, largely white voters – disaffected “Reagan Democrats” – in MI. Trump has a 42% to 26% lead among those who have yet to vote.
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Clinton’s campaign signaled ahead of MI that the race could be tight – Clinton, her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and daughter Chelsea Clinton all campaigned in the state over the past few days trying to garner last-minute votes.
Mr. Trump contained Cruz’s advances by winning in Louisiana and Kentucky.
Trying to make a stand in Michigan, Sanders has accused Clinton of being disingenuous when she asserted that he opposed the auto bailout that rescued carmakers General Motors and Chrysler during the Great Recession. These groups reportedly are the conservative-advocacy organizations American Future Fund and Club for Growth Action as well as a pro-Rubio super PAC, Conservative Solutions, and an anti-Trump one, Our Principles PAC.
About two-thirds of voters in Mississippi’s Democratic primary were African-American, and almost 9 in 10 were backing Clinton in preliminary results. On the Republican side, Donald Trump still holds the top spot.
If Bloomberg runs as an independent, he gets about one-quarter of the vote, while Sanders has a 14-point lead and Clinton leads by 16 points.
If Rubio and Kasich can’t win at home, the GOP primary appears set to become a two-person race between Trump and Cruz. He needs to win home state Florida next week, while Ohio Gov. John Kasich needs to win his home state Tuesday to stay in the race.
After a string of wins ranging from New Hampshire to Louisiana, Trump leads the race in delegates – but does not yet have the majority needed for nomination.
Saturday’s contests are the first to be held since 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney excoriated Trump, the current frontrunner for the Republican nomination, in a speech before students at the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics.
There are three Republican primaries today, all using various proportional delegate allocation rules: MI (59 delegates), MS (40 delegates), and Idaho (32 delegates).
John Kasich, who has yet to win a single state’s Republican primary or caucus, has been campaigning extensively in MI, devoting a significant amount of time, money and resources to the state. The overall margin of error is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.
Some more mainstream Republicans have cast both Trump and Cruz as unelectable in a November face-off with the Democratic nominee. On Sunday, Rubio won the Republican presidential primary in Puerto Rico, securing 23 delegates.
As of 8:00 on Sunday, Trump leads the pack with 384, followed by Ted Cruz with 300 and Marco Rubio with 151 delegates.
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The Broward County-based Sun-Sentinel’s decision comes as Florida’s 99-delegate, winner-take-all March 15 primary approaches. It takes 1,237 delegates to win the GOP nomination.
