Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton each went into the Super Saturday caucuses and primary elections with wide delegate leads over their respective Republican and Democratic opponents.
Advertisement
The GOP race has been winnowed down to four men: political outsiders Trump and Cruz, and the more mainstream candidates Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Ohio Governor John Kasich.
Saturday’s GOP races in Maine, Kansas, Kentucky and Louisiana and Democratic contests in Nebraska, Kansas and Louisiana were largely overshadowed by the Super Tuesday races dominated by Trump and Clinton.
Mr Trump’s rivals, who have tried just about everything to disrupt his juggernaut, can take comfort from the rules for Saturday’s round of voting, as they make it easier for candidates to claim a share of the delegates than was true in some earlier contests. These delegates are not awarded by state nominating contests and can change their minds at the national convention if they see the popular vote going for another candidate. “I think we are going to do well in Maine tomorrow”.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, also still in the mix but far behind, was holding out hope for a better showing next week in MI and in his home state of Ohio on March 15.
At the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday, Rubio criticized the media for fueling Trump’s rise.
He also announced this week that he’s opening 10 campaign offices in Florida, a state where Marco Rubio, who now trails Donald Trump, has pinned his hopes on winning. “We have to bring things together”. Though Rubio’s team has argued that the states where he is expected to do well, such as his home state of Florida, have yet to vote.
On the Democratic side, Clinton hoped that strong support among African Americans in Louisiana would propel her to victory.
A Cruz campaign official, meanwhile, told CNN’s Sunlen Serfaty that the Texas senator’s camp was “optimistic” about adding to his delegate tally across the night’s contests and of widening the gap to Rubio. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz also was visiting, and Florida Sen.
“I would like to take on Ted one-on-one”, he said, ticking off a list of big states where he said Cruz had no chance. Saturday’s results were not likely to alter the broader contours of the Democratic race as Clinton maintains a significant delegate lead. With front-runner Trump yet to win states by the margins he’ll need in order to secure the nomination before the GOP convention, every one of the 155 GOP delegates at stake on Saturday was worth fighting for.
Clinton and Sanders both campaigned in MI, a sign of the importance both attach to the state’s primary on Tuesday. She said she liked the businessman because “he’s not bought and paid for”.
The races on Saturday will test whether there’s any fallout from a wild week in Republican politics, which included Romney’s attacks on Trump and a raucous Fox News debate in which the candidates mostly yelled over one another and Trump boasted about the size of his genitals.
“I’ve been sitting here for five minutes and two of the three questions you’ve asked have been about Donald Trump”, Rubio said during a question-and-answer session. Trump was second at 32.55%, Kasich was at 12.17%, while Rubio was fourth at 8 %, the state party said.
Advertisement
Bernie Sanders notched a win in Nebraska and state party officials gave him a victory in Kansas, while Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton snagged Louisiana, another split decision from the American people. He beat Trump in the closed caucuses, where only registered Republicans could vote.
