“President Obama is looking more like an asset for the Democrats than a liability”, said Yang, the Democratic pollster. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. acknowledges his supporters on arrival at a campaign rally, Tuesday, March 8, 2016, in Miami. Keep refreshing for updates. Romney, the 2012 GOP nominee, has not endorsed a candidate but has vowed to help challengers to Trump, who he says would be risky for the country.
Advertisement
Clinton and Sanders have clashed repeatedly in recent days over issues that are vital to MI voters. NBC News is calling it a “significant win” for Clinton.
Then it becomes a two-man race with Cruz, but Trump would likely have a huge delegate lead and growing momentum.
The Texas senator won handily in the deep red state.
It looks like another big night on the road to the Republican nomination for Donald Trump. Ted Cruz, who shrugged off a disappointing showing on Super Tuesday last week.
Trump was broadly popular across lots of groups, according to exit polls.
Sanders, fresh from a testy debate with Clinton on Sunday, needs a strong showing to deprive his opponent’s campaign of an argument that not only can he not win Southern states but he is lagging behind in diverse Midwestern ones as well. And 18 percent of all voters (and 26 percent of Republicans) said that Trump has the right approach and is telling it like it is. But among Democrats in MS, the only real question was who liked Hillary Clinton the most. Clinton won black voters over Sanders 65-30. A Monmouth University poll showed GOP front runner Donald Trump with 36 percent of the Republican vote in MI – 13 points ahead of Ted Cruz.
The Hawaii caucus had been a bit of a toss-up. Marco Rubio has not personally campaigned in the state, but like other candidates he is promoting local endorsements.
Can Sanders really hold his own in MI?
It may be a sign of Clinton’s vulnerabilities. He had targeted Clinton’s past support for trade policies like NAFTA and the Obama Administration’s Trans Pacific Partnership, saying that trade pacts kill the kinds of manufacturing jobs that many Michiganders have.
During an interview on Tuesday with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Rubio was asked about a CNN story that his campaign pushed back on that said advisers were pushing him to drop out to avoid being embarrassed in his home state. Florida’s 99 delegates are awarded on a winner-take-all basis.
But the efforts were not enough to stop Trump from winning the state. He said he was an independent who believes “in supporting reasonable candidates that show wisdom in their actions, understanding that no one is flawless, and empathy for all”. He would need to win 73 percent of the remaining delegates. Republican incumbents were challenged in two districts – the 1st District in the north and 3rd District in the central part of the state.
Rubio was a distant fourth in both MS and MI.
Based on that, and polling, Rubio could be done immediately after voters in his home state head to the polls.
Fox News and MSNBC called the race in MS in favor of Trump about a half hour after polls closed at 8 P.M. EST. But if Rubio can’t pull out a win in Florida, it could be a crippling blow to his campaign.
Altogether, 316 delegates are up for grabs tonight – 150 for Republicans and 166 for Democrats (this does not count the unpledged superdelegates that factor into the Democratic race). Both candidates made appearances in the state.
Republicans were also voting on Tuesday in Idaho and Hawaii. It might still take weeks for either party’s presidential nominations to be clear. At stake Tuesday: 179 Democratic delegates. Trump’s wins in MS and MI will give him a further boost over his competition.
In the overall race for delegates, Trump has 428 and Cruz has 315.
Advertisement
Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s only hope of becoming the GOP nominee appears to rest on corralling establishment support if Rubio exits the race and hoping that a convention fight could deprive Trump of the nomination. His time is getting short to catch Clinton in the delegate chase and he must broaden his appeal to do so. “That’s not going to move us forward”, she said.
