By capturing Florida, Trump will win all 99 of the state’s delegates, giving him a huge lift in his drive to the nomination.
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Trump won the Florida primary as well as several other contests on Tuesday, when five states went to the polls. That resounding win helped force Rubio out of the race after failing to win his own state and to unite the Republican establishment against Trump.
It now remains unclear whether Trump can secure the number of delegates needed to win the nomination outright before the Republican national convention in July, according to Republican analyst Ford O’Connell.
Clinton and Sanders were competing in primaries in Florida and OH, the nation’s two leading general election battleground states, along with Missouri, North Carolina and IL. “I’m representing many, many millions of people”. Joe Manchin a letter admitting she was wrong when she said, “We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business” while campaigning in Ohio.
He later claimed to MSNBC that several Republican senators who were attacking him in public were calling him in private to back what he was doing and saying.
Trump now leads the delegate counts with 621 delegates, followed by Ted Cruz (396), Rubio (168) and Kasich (138).
As counting in the Missouri primary continues for the Republicans, CNN projected a tight race between Trump and Cruz.
The loss in his home state of Florida was a brutal blow for Senator Rubio who was once a rising star in the party and had become the choice of the party establishment’s anti-Trump forces until his campaign nosedived. According to the Chicago Tribune, “The popular vote victor here will get 15 delegates, while the remaining 54 are decided directly by voters, three from each of the state’s 18 congressional districts”. That’s similar to her level of support among black voters in MI where she lost last week, but in OH and IL it was enough to propel her to victory.
More than half of Democratic primary voters in IL and Missouri say Sanders inspires them about the future of the country.
If a contested convention arrives, and Kasich may appear to have a better chance against Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, convention delegates may make judgments based on political calculus. In her victory speech, besides thanking Bernie Sanders for being a fierce competitor, she trained her guns on Donald Trump, indicating that she is already past the primaries and well focused on the general elections ahead of us in November.
Trump said Clinton would be “a major embarrassment for the country” and added that she “doesn’t have the strength or the stamina to be president”.
A group of conservatives planned to meet Thursday to discuss options including a contested convention or by rallying around a third-party candidate. And that looks like less than a certainty after Trump’s latest victories. Sanders will win at least 73. Cruz has 394 and Kasich 136.
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Cruz has been heralding the mantra that he is the only candidate left in the Republican race that could beat Donald Trump and continued to do so as Tuesday evening results rolled in.
