“Tonight is a turning point”, Cruz said at his victory party in Wisconsin. “It is a rallying cry”.
Advertisement
“It is a call from the hardworking men and women of Wisconsin to the people of America”. We have a choice.
Ted Cruz has won the Republican presidential primary in Wisconsin. But, Clinton was not in Wisconsin on Tuesday and she was not in Wyoming either.
The next Democratic state to vote is Wyoming, which will caucus this Saturday, April 9, a format where Sanders more often than not has beaten Clinton. He has 16 closed states ahead of him. “In reality, it just has two competing strong bases, and one of the two of them is going to win”.
In this election cycle Donald Trump has grown unaccustomed to losing. His campaign issued a venomous statement Tuesday saying that super PACs, Republican establishment figures, talk-radio hosts and a bunch of other bad people ganged up on him to boost Ted Cruz in Wisconsin. They were much more likely to say Sanders was honest and trustworthy, but they thought Clinton had a better chance of defeating Trump in November.
The only silver lining might have been that there was no significant gender gap – an indication Trump’s two stumbles and subsequent reversals over abortion didn’t depress his support from women. For instance, Cruz won among those with college degrees but also among those without.
These numbers are similar to national polling that shows a deep divide within the GOP between Trump supporters and Republican voters who oppose him. The win gives critics of Donald Trump hope that they can stop the GOP front-runner’s rise to the party nomination.
It’s possible this sentiment may be unique to Wisconsin. To all the voters and volunteers who poured your hearts into this campaign: Forward! Trump has about 740; Cruz slightly more than 500. The Trump campaign told the Washington Post on Tuesday that the front-runner will make a shift in tone in the coming weeks, moving from style to more substance with a series of policy speeches. At many points in the race, he’s appeared to be able to say and do whatever he pleases. But then the race jumps to a major new orbit, with NY holding its delegate-rich primary on April 19.
Among general election voters, Trump has sky-high negatives. There will be 95 Republican delegates at stake, the biggest single prize until California votes June 7.
Whatever the Kasich campaign may argue, the governor’s performance in Wisconsin raises even more questions about his long-shot campaign.
Donald Trump won 35 percent of the Wisconsin vote.
In the Democratic race, Sanders still trails Clinton in the pledged delegate count and has so far been unable to persuade superdelegates- the party officials who can back any candidate – to drop their allegiance to the former secretary of state and back his campaign. He was aided, for example, by a particularly massive margin among young voters in the primary. He now needs to take about 58% of the remaining delegates, which is easier than it sounds… there are still 111 delegates remaining in winner-take-all states, and another 234 in winner-take-all congressional districts, a not-impossible task for a front-running-but-not-universally-loved candidate. Bringing needed change, by contrast, has been a better Trump group – he’s won voters focused on this attribute by 2-1 over Cruz, 46-23 percent, in previous contests.
Sanders, who has said he identifies as a socialist democrat, declared himself a Democrat a year ago when he announced his presidential campaign. Yet he would beat Clinton by 16 points there in a head-to-head matchup.
Wisconsin also presents a test on the Democratic side. Diminished ranks and the siege mentality that followed have empowered more vocally progressive members, the kind of voters anxious to collect signatures and canvass their neighborhoods – that is, just the type who are more likely to pull the lever for Sanders. In March Sanders raised $44 million to Clinton’s $15 million.
Advertisement
Democrats divide pledged delegates proportionally, so Sanders and Clinton both walk away with a healthy chunk of their party’s 86 Wisconsin delegates.
