Clinton won at least four the night’s five contests-notching big wins in Florida, North Carolina, and OH, and a smaller one in IL.
Advertisement
Trump was also locked in a tight race with John Kasich in the OH governor’s home-state last night.
Republican Donald Trump, who maintains a commanding lead in IL, is projected to win the state.
Trump’s appeal with Florida’s educated Republican voters notably broke from the trends seen in most other states like North Carolina and IL where the billionaire won with a coalition of less educated and lower income voters.
Clinton entered the primaries with a lead of more than 200 pledged delegates and could end the day with about two-thirds of the delegates needed to claim the nomination.
With the addition of superdelegates, party leaders who can support any candidate, Clinton’s total grows to 1,561 to Sanders’s 800.
Still, the new numbers aren’t encouraging for Clinton in her matchup with Sanders.
Clinton now has 1488 delegates to Sanders’ 704.
Ahead of the MI primary, Clinton attacked Sanders for a vote against a 2009 automotive industry bailout, drawing fire from a visibly irritated Sanders, who said he supported the legislation until it became a Wall Street “bailout”.
“We are moving closer to securing the Democratic Party nomination and winning this election in November”, Clinton told cheering supporters in Florida, calling it “another Super Tuesday for our campaign”.
The Florida and OH contests also represent a political date with destiny for Kasich and Florida Sen.
Eight out of ten black voters supported Clinton in North Carolina, while in Florida she picked up over nearly 80 percent of the black vote, according to national exit polls cited by FiveThirtyEight.
Clinton spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri said there is no way Sanders can catch Clinton now.
“Too crude and rude”, OH voter Nikki Heath said, calling Trump’s angry rhetoric “an embarrassment”. 51% of GOP voters think Sanders could never win the general election.
The surveys were conducted for The Associated Press and television networks by Edison Research as voters left their polling places at 30 to 40 randomly selected sites in five states holding primary elections Tuesday. The candidate who wins Illinois’ popular vote automatically gets 15 delegates, while the remaining 54 will be distributed to the top vote getter in each of the state’s 18 congressional districts (three delegates per district).
Advertisement
Hillary Clinton arrives at a campaign rally at a community center in Charlotte, North Carolina, on March 14, 2016. About half of voters said the next president should continue President Obama’s policies, and most of those favored Clinton. “I’ve actually worked with her on that to put people back to work in the Mahoning Valley and all across the state”, said Brown, who has endorsed Clinton in the Democratic race.
