Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks at a campaign rally at The Family Arena Monday, March 14, 2016, in St. Charles, Mo.
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Ahead of Tuesday’s primaries, Trump held rallies in Florida, Ohio and North Carolina on Monday and said establishment Republicans who have labored to stop his outsider candidacy needed to rally to his cause.
Their only real hope for stopping Trump is to deny him the 1,237 delegates needed for the nomination and extend the battle to the party’s nominating convention in July in Cleveland.
(Bob Chwedyk/Daily Herald via AP).
The votes in Florida, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois and North Carolina are likely the last chance for Republicans to stop front-runner Donald Trump at the voting booth and avert a contested convention.
Trump said Tuesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that his record-setting crowds have had “very, very little difficultly”. Cruz crushed Trump by winning 66.3 per cent of the ballots, far ahead of Rubio, his nearest rival, who earned 19.5 per cent of the vote.
But the race is much closer there, and Kasich is now tied with Trump. Kasich and Rubio trail in double digits.
House Speaker Paul Ryan says all candidates have an obligation to do what they can to provide an atmosphere of harmony at campaign events and not incite violence. “The eyes of the nation are on OH and the latest polls show Gov. Kasich defeating Trump in Ohio”.
The 69-year-old billionaire businessman has a significant lead over Rubio in opinion polls in Florida, but is neck and neck with Kasich in Ohio. He’s leading Rubio by more than 18 points in the RealClearPolitics polling average and has been the Florida frontrunner in the past 39 polls released on the site. Mr Rubio made a final plea to voters, saying: “We have to win here in Florida”.
If Trump loses OH and Florida and only grabs a portion of Missouri and IL, he’d need nearly two-thirds of remaining delegates.
If Trump sweeps Tuesday’s contests, he’ll cross an important threshold with more than 50 percent of the delegates awarded so far. His closest competition has come from Texas senator Ted Cruz, who has won in seven states.
Trump earlier Tuesday backed away from a suggestion that he might cover legal costs for a supporter who was caught on video punching a black protester in the face.
Mrs Clinton headed into Tuesday’s primary with 768 pledged delegates compared with 554 for Mr Sanders, according to a count by the Associated Press.
However, Sanders leads Clinton very narrowly in IL 48 to 46 per cent, it said. He’s escalated his criticism in recent days, hoping to undercut her edge among minorities and expand his advantage with white working-class voters.
“People of this country are not going to elect a president who insults Mexicans, Muslims, women”, Sanders said at the Columbus rally.
Trump’s opponents refer to his remarks of 27 per cent Muslims hating the USA, building a wall along the Mexico border for which the money would be paid by the Mexico Government, asking key allies like Japan, Germany and South Korea to pay protection money and near daily anti-China rhetoric as risky for American foreign policy and its national interest.
That means former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. “I am interested in what someone is going to do for this country, not another country”, Sonia said in Spanish, adding that she believes Republican front-runner Donald Trump is too focused on other countries and is too harsh in his treatment of other cultures. “You’re going to say it was the single greatest vote that you ever cast”, he said.
The campaign next shifts to the West, where Sanders’ advisers have suggested he could rattle off a win streak and enter April with the chance to put a dent in Clinton’s delegate lead.
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Pace reported from Washington.
