Donald Trump scored decisive victories in MI and Mississippi Tuesday night, delivering a stinging rebuke to well-financed critics trying to block his road to the GOP presidential nomination.
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For Sanders, Michigan was a promising opportunity to cut into Clinton’s delegate lead.
He has targeted Clinton’s past support for trade policies like NAFTA and the Obama Administration’s Trans Pacific Partnership, which Sanders says have robbed America’s manufacturing workers of jobs (particularly in places like, say, Michigan). But Sanders claimed a third of the African-American vote in MI, a larger percentage than he has elsewhere, NBC News reports. Michigan, with big college towns and a sizeable population of working-class voters, should be a good fit for him.
The results in MS underscored Clinton’s overwhelming strength with black voters and Sanders’ stunning inability to draw support from voters who are crucial to Democrats in the general election.
Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri told reporters, “We don’t know how it is going to go”.
In a nod toward the kind of traditional politics he’s shunned, Mr. Trump emphasised the importance of helping Republican senators and House members get elected in November.
The victory continues his momentum that rivals have struggled to slow.
If Mr Rubio and Mr Kasich can not win at home, the Republican primary appears set to become a two-person race between Mr Trump and Mr Cruz, an uncompromising conservative.
In a crowded field for the Republican nomination for president, Donald Trump continued to stay at the front of the pack. The front-runner was at 36%, Cruz was second with 23%, Ohio Gov. John Kasich had 21% and Florida Sen. He said the move strikes him as “profoundly wrong” and is something “kings and queens demand” of their subjects.
“When you get ahead of yourself in this business, that’s when you stumble”, he said. “You can help me send a message about positive, about vision, about hope, about putting us together”.
If Clinton is able to win big in MS and MI, it may make Sanders’ math all but impossible-and the March 15 votes in Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, and OH more of a coronation. At least 8 in 10 voters in each party’s primary said they were anxious about where the American economy is heading, according to exit polls conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and television networks.
About eight in 10 Democratic voters in both MI and MS said the country’s economic system benefits the wealthy, rather than being fair to all.
Bernie Sanders has sought to tap into that concern, energizing young people and white, blue-collar voters with his calls for breaking up Wall Street banks and making tuition free at public colleges and universities.
Major news organizations called MS for Clinton soon after the polls closed, but waited more than two hours, until after 11 p.m. Eastern, before declaring Sanders the victor in MI.
It also gives Clinton a 9-point lead in the Ohio Democratic primary.
Despite the upset in Michigan, Clinton still has a lead in the number of delegates, which is crucial for winning the party’s presidential nomination.
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Heading in Tuesday’s races, Cruz had 300, Rubio had 151 and Kasich had 37.
