US Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump faces a tough test today when the party’s key primaries will be held in four states of Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan and MS as the gap between him and his rivals has narrowed.
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While Trump has stunned Republicans with his broad appeal, he’s forged a particularly strong connection with white working-class voters by emphasizing his opposition to worldwide trade deals and support for building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
In Michigan, Republicans were vying for 59 delegates while Democrats were competing for 130.
Tuesday’s races also represent an important moment for Kasich, who has spent several weeks effectively on the sidelines following a strong second-place showing in the New Hampshire primary last month.
Trump also decried the “horrible things” and “horrible lies” that his opponents have said about him in recent days.
In Michigan, Sanders had earned the support of over half of the Democratic voters as against 47 per cent for Clinton. Opinion polls show, however, that Trump is hanging on to a double-digit lead in MI over Cruz.
“They are trying and they’re spending millions of dollars but I have a tremendous following”, Trump said Tuesday on Fox News, taking credit for the massive Republican voter turnout in the 2016 campaign.
Eugene Kontorovich, a professor at Northwestern University School of Law, points out that Donald Trump carried the state by banking a large number of votes during the state’s week-long early voting period in February.
Among Democrats, 8 in 10 voters in both states said the country’s economic system benefits the wealthy, not all Americans.
A spokeswoman for Cruz said Tuesday that the missive was not authorized by his campaign. FiveThirtyEight, meanwhile, says Trump has a 92 percent chance of winning MI.
“I didn’t know it was a problem”, Trump said. Kasich has yet to win a primary but hoped a good showing in MI would give him a boost heading into next week’s crucial contest in his home state.
US Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, 44, the favourite of a Republican establishment alarmed by Trump’s controversial proposals and anxious about Cruz’s uncompromising conservatism, lagged in MI polls and needs a win in his home state next week to keep his campaign alive. It’s a heavily-populated, diverse state that Democrats absolutely have to have in order to win the general election in November. As John Fund points out, “If Trump wins Florida but loses OH to Kasich, he will then have to win 57 percent of the remaining delegates to win on the first ballot”. The new poll found 42 percent support for a contested convention among all voters surveyed, but 63 percent support among all those not favoring Trump.
Bernie Sanders are vying for 130 delegates in the Democratic race, not including superdelegates unbound to the public vote. That goes for Trump, Rubio and Cruz.
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A victory in MI could set Clinton up for a huge March 15 – when Florida, Ohio, Illinois, North Carolina and Missouri vote.
