Does that shock any of you?
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Sanders campaigned hard in Wisconsin, which has a deep progressive tradition where any voter can take a Democratic ballot and first-time voters can register and cast ballots on primary day.
In the Democratic race, Mrs Clinton is narrowly trailing in the Badger State to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who has won five of the last six contests.
Sanders stands to make a dent in that lead tonight.
Talk of a contested convention, therefore, has grown more intense in recent days, with the possibility dimming of any one candidate reaching the threshold mark. Democrats in the state, meanwhile, have grown more likely to identify as “very liberal”, exit polls showed: A full 25 percent described themselves that way this year, while only 16 percent did in 2008. Cruz argued on Monday that a Wisconsin victory for his campaign would finally expose Trump as vulnerable after months of seeming impervious to bad press. Cruz had been generally expected to win but the margin of victory was greater than expected.
“If we win here, we are going to have a bounce going into NY state where I think we can win”, he said, speaking at a local union hall in Janesville, Wisconsin, Monday.
■ Be patient: As of this writing, there are 17 states yet to vote for a Republican nominee. More than a third said they were scared about what Trump would do as president, and about 2 in 10 said they were concerned, according to surveys conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and television networks.
Will the #NeverTrump movement cause a brokered Republican convention? Cruz, the Texas senator who has emerged as Trump’s closest rival, was casting Wisconsin as crucial to GOP efforts to stop the billionaire businessman. The other 24 delegates are divided among districts, where the district victor takes all the delegates assigned there. You can tell a candidate is screwed when his chief strategist insists the nomination is “not a matter of delegate arithmetic”, which it is. The latest delegate tally, according to the AP, has Mr. Trump with 737, Mr. Cruz with 475, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich with 143.
Assuming that Cruz wins tonight, says GOP activist Tom Pauken, “then that’s a huge boost to his campaign”.
Jeff Essmann, chairman of the Montana Republican Party, along with the state’s male and female representatives to the Republican National Committee, are guaranteed spots, leaving 24 delegates to be elected. “We’re virtually tied with Donald Trump in Pennsylvania”. The front-runner has also played on themes of being up against an unfair system, helmed by the media, former presidential candidate Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and his endorsed choice, Cruz.
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At a contested convention, party leaders, not voters, would choose the nominee. Cruz staffers inaccurately told voters that Ben Carson had dropped out of the race, and the campaign sent out an official-looking “voter violation” mailer encouraging a vote for Cruz.
