In the Democratic race, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton can go a long way toward silencing concerns about her candidacy with big victories of her own over democratic socialist Bernie Sanders.
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Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia will hold all be holding their nominating contests tonight for both Democrats and Republicans. Cruz is counting on a big win in his home state to lift his campaign nationally.
What states vote on Super Tuesday?
Caucuses are local meetings of registered party members organized by the state party.
Today’s Texas primary elections could be the most important of all states in this presidential campaign.
On the Democratic side, Sanders has been undeterred by recent losses in Nevada and SC.
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey did well in every debate, but it didn’t get translated into significant gains in the polls or in delegate counts. Several judicial seats will be decided in Hidalgo County, as well as county commissioners, state representatives and several propositions, including on federal immigration reform and whether to allow all Texas higher education institutions to opt-out of the state’s new campus carry laws. With 155 delegates, Texas is the biggest prize of any contest on Super Tuesday.
There are 595 delegates at stake for the Republicans on Super Tuesday.
Rival Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz were trying frantically to halt Trump’s march toward the nomination, seeking to unite the party against the man they see as a non-conservative political interloper.
Trump leads the Republican field with 82 delegates, followed by Cruz who has 17, and Rubio with 16. Can Rubio point to increased margins of support even if he doesn’t win anywhere?
ERIK S. LESSER/EPA The CNN/ORC poll of national voters showed Clinton has an 8-point lead over Trump – 52% to 44%. The GOP primary ballot also includes Ben Carson and John Kasich. Nobody is showing up, and Bernie Sanders is over. Polls also show he would cause more harm to Clinton in a general election than Trump.
Sanders says “this is a campaign that is going to the Philadelphia convention in July”.
These polls come as the attacks have escalated among Republican candidates. Does Clinton continue to have trouble with voters who place a premium on honesty? Those numbers suggest none of the remaining GOP candidates could take down Trump, even if they somehow get him one-on-one.
In the end, it’s all about the delegates.
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How well does Marco Rubio do? It takes 2,383 to win the nomination. “That 100 delegate mark – a lead of that much – will make it very hard for Sanders to equalize”, Josh Putnam, a University of Georgia professor who specializes in campaigns and elections, told ABC News.
