Ted Cruz has seized upon his victories on “Super Saturday” to claim he is the only man able to stop Donald Trump, as the Republican party scrabbles to throw a spoke in the wheel of the New Yorker’s political juggernaut.
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In the Republican race, Trump has 378 delegates, Cruz 295 and Rubio 123. In the end, Trump squeaked by with a three point win, and a tie for Cruz in terms of delegates.
Graham was once in the presidential race, but dropped out and later endorsed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who is also no longer in the running.
Of the four states, MI has the most delegates and will be watched most closely.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz warned on Sunday that there could be an “uprising” if what he called the “Washington establishment” tries to steal the Republican nomination by putting up a third candidate at the party convention.
On the Democratic side of the aisle, Hillary Clinton took Louisiana, but Bernie Sanders came out on top in both Nebraska and Kansas.
“I think a lot of people were surprised by how well Ted Cruz did”, Romney said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press. “It’s Donald Trump”, one ad says. “And our campaign is the only campaign that has demonstrated we can do so over and over”, he said on the campaign trail. Cruz won an open primary in his home state of Texas. A Quinnipiac poll released two weeks ago put Rubio behind Trump by a wider margin: 44% to 28%.
While Cruz’s best natural states, namely those in the South, are mostly behind him, Rubio’s backsliding gives Cruz an increasingly strong argument that he’s the candidate best positioned to make a last stand against Trump.
Rubio also leads among those who live in the southern portion of Florida, while Trump does better in central and northern Florida.
Rubio did pick up a victory Sunday in Puerto Rico’s primary, only his second win of the 2016 cycle. The 2012 GOP nominee delivered a speech last week excoriating Trump – but he did not endorse any of the remaining Trump rivals. Trump could win here by 0.5 percent and walk off with all 99 delegates, just the same as if he’d won by 40 percent.
Overall, Clinton had at least 1,121 delegates to Sanders’ 481, including superdelegates – members of Congress, governors and party officials who can support the candidate of their choice.
Here are the current delegate counts for the candidates for the Republican nomination for president.
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After Saturday’s contests, Clinton had 1,121 delegates, almost half the 2,383 needed to win the Democratic nomination. Trump said at the Fox debate, responding to a jab days earlier from Rubio suggesting that the front-runner has small appendages. A win here for Florida’s junior senator would more than likely only ensure a brokered convention for Republicans in July.
