The following story ran first on The Politician, the political newspaper of The Rider Online. Check The Politician often for updates on the upcoming 2016 presidential election as well as other political news.
Super Tuesday has come and passed, with 11 states choosing who their nominee for the general election will be. With all the big wins and losses, here’s where the race stands for each candidate after Super Tuesday.
Donald Trump
He just keeps winning. Trump won seven out of the 11 states who went to the polls on Tuesday, bringing his win total up to 10. With a delegate lead and favorable numbers heading into the next few votes, Trump is almost to the point of no return. His popularity is only growing, as evident in his wins and he now has 319 delegates of the 1,237 needed to win. Some Republicans have been trying to slow down his path towards victory, but it may be too little, too late. With four candidates splitting the vote and three of those splitting the establishment vote against Trump, he will continue to win unless the GOP rallies behind one candidate and soon.
Hillary Clinton
She won big in the south, again, taking seven out of the 11 states up for grabs. Her biggest victory is that she is winning big with minority voters. At this point she is pretty far out front and her nomination is more likely, but it’s still far from over. Her campaign still can’t shake the email scandal and Republicans are pressing her hard on this issue and will continue to do so if she is the nominee.
Ted Cruz
Tuesday night was a big night for Ted Cruz, who won three primaries. Most notably he won Texas, his and The Politician’s home state, which had the most delegates available on Super Tuesday. The home support carried north of the border into Oklahoma and Alaska. With four wins now, Cruz is the main competition for Trump. With Rubio and Kasich still in the race, the vote will continued to be split between them keeping Trump ahead. Both Cruz and Rubio are making the case that they need to be the guy that runs against Trump, but neither are backing down yet. Cruz does have more wins and is much closer in delegates. If the Republican establishment really doesn’t want Trump, it has to act now.
Bernie Sanders
Sanders had a good night, winning four primaries, but he is going to need a lot more than that to win the nomination. He lost to Hillary in all the high delegate southern states and is going to have to win big in the upcoming months to get the nomination. While he has always been the underdog, the window for his campaign is starting to close if he can’t win more primaries by larger margins. Even if he starts to fall farther behind, he has said he will go all the way to the convention. Regardless of victories, Sander’s campaign has brought a wave of enthusiastic progressive voters and issues into the mix. A Democratic-Socialist has now won Democratic primaries and that’s a victory for those on the far left no matter who gets the nomination.
Marco Rubio
Arguably the biggest loser from Tuesday, Rubio is now on the ropes. Only winning one primary, while supposedly being the saving grace of the Republican establishment, has Rubio in a tight spot. If he can’t beat Cruz, then support may shift over to Cruz, who has won four states. Rubio has to show he can win and keep winning. For this, it all leads to his home state of Florida, where he will make his statement. A win means his campaign survives, a loss in his home state would be devastating. If he is the one who the GOP wants, he has to win and win now.
