Scott Olson/Getty Images News/Getty ImagesFLINT, MI – MARCH 06: Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speak during the CNN Democratic Presidential Primary Debate at the Whiting Auditorium at the Cultural Center Campus on March 6, 2016 in Flint, Michigan.
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With North Carolina, Missouri and IL also having primaries for both the Democrats and Republicans, Tuesday had more delegates available than nearly every other day on the primary calendar.
Polling in OH showed that Clinton held a lead as great as 30 points just before the MI primary, while she was shown to have a more than 40 point lead in IL in another poll.
Clinton still looks poised to pull off a win there, but a strong showing by Sanders would feed into the narrative that his campaign still has legs as the nomination fight continues.
Will it still be a four-man Republican race come midnight? Sen. Marco Rubio has 163 and Ohio Gov. John Kasich has 63. If Trump prevails, he’ll be awarded the state’s 66 delegates, effectively putting an end to Kasich’s somewhat-quixotic presidential bid.
Kasich spent Monday campaigning in his home state alongside Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee and a fierce critic of Trump.t a Kasich event in North Canton, Ohio. Rubio said Monday he would “shock the country” with a victory in Florida despite Trump’s big lead there.
Trump answered by portraying Kasich as weak and deliberately mispronounced his rival’s Czech surname. If Rubio and Kasich each carry their home states, and Cruz cuts into Trump’s lead or overtakes him in IL and Missouri, he can maintain or close the gap between him and the frontrunner. Sanders does better than Clinton with Democratic primary voters on characteristics that relate to honesty and authenticity; Clinton with areas that have to do with experience and ability.
What Sanders needs, however, is big wins in at least Illinois, Missouri, and OH to prove that he could still win the nomination. The senator has acknowledged that polls show Trump far ahead in Florida, but Rubio promised to “shock the country”.
Backers have been patient with the 44-year-old Florida senator, buoyed by the political talent he has flashed – especially on the debate stage. Sanders would need to win 54 percent. March 15 was supposed to be the day he was knocked out once and for all.
Bernie Sanders joined moderator Chuck Todd in Columbus, Ohio, while Hillary Clinton joined moderator Chris Matthews in Springfield, Illinois.
The activity was unusual for IL, which typically leans heavily Democratic in statewide races and is often largely ignored by presidential candidates, even in primary contests. “I do not want the Republican Party or the conservative movement to be defined by what I’m seeing out of Donald Trump campaign”, said Marco Rubio.
He made stops in Chicago and Phoenix Tuesday, but said he thinks momentum has been with him leading up to Ohio’s primary. It also cuts across partisan lines: While the deal is championed by the Obama administration, many congressional Democrats oppose it while many Republicans support it.
She’s won South Carolina, Texas and everything in between already, and she is expected to finish off the sweep with wins in Florida and North Carolina. Should either of them drop out, the biggest beneficiary may be Ted Cruz, who now holds the second-place slot and is hoping not to fall too much farther behind. His campaign has been carefully calibrating his schedule to seize on those opportunities – which means he will try to stay close to Trump in the delegate count even without winning a state. And that doesn’t seem likely in Tuesday’s contests.
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“It will be absolutely clear to everyone that this is a two-man race”, Cruz said told reporters Monday in Peoria, Illinois. If Trump wins both Florida and OH (which will likely force Kasich out), it’s hard to see how Trump can be derailed on his way to the nomination. Sen.
