A few hours after Donald Trump drew as many as 20,000 people to the IX Center on Cleveland’s west side, Hillary Clinton was on the east side speaking to a predominantly African American church about issues including the economy, criminal justice reform and voting rights. Ohio Governor John Kasich won the primary in his home state, and Senator Marco Rubio dropped out of the race.
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With Florida and North Carolina in her column, Clinton has now swept every contest against Sanders across the South so far in the campaign, but the rest of the race Tuesday could be fought on ground more favorable to Sanders than Florida – where there is a large number of seniors and minorities supportive of the former secretary of state. She needs to win 2,383 delegates to win nomination.
Trump did, however, prevail in the biggest contest of the night, taking all off Florida’s 99 delegates. Her win in OH was a particular relief for her campaign, which grew anxious after Sanders pulled off a surprising win last week in MI, another important Midwestern state.
“We are all very, very happy”, Kasich told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in a telephone interview.
Hillary ClintonHillary Rodham ClintonTuesday’s election winners and losers Clinton pads delegate lead Clinton holds off Sanders to win Illinois MORE will leave Tuesday night having added to her already significant lead in delegates.
With just over 2,000 pledged delegates still up for grabs, Clinton would only need to win about 40 percent of the remaining delegates to secure the nomination, even if she doesn’t gain another superdelegate. Clinton’s lock on black and Hispanic voters has helped offset Sanders’ army of support from voters under 30 and white male voters.
After thanking Sanders for his “vigorous campaign”, Clinton turned her attention
to Trump.
The Democratic front-runner also lamented what she said was a “tide of bullying and bigotry and blustering that is going on in our political system”.
Two other states also vote Tuesday, Illinois and Missouri.
“America is in the middle of a real political storm, a real tsunami and we should have seen this coming”, Rubio said.
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Clinton pivoted quickly to November during her victory rally, assailing Trump’s hard-line immigration positions and support for torture. She said for the nation “to be great, we can’t be small”.
