Rubio bags Puerto Rico, Sanders takes on Hillary
WASHINGTON: Desperately looking for a victory to stay in the US presidential race, Republican Senator Marco Rubio won the primary in Puerto Rico on Sunday, only his second so far.
And Bernie Sanders won the Democratic caucuses in Maine, bringing up his tally of states to eight, and clashed fiercely with his only rival Hillary Clinton at a debate in Michigan.
Rubio, a first-time Senator from Florida, is the Republican party establishment’s last hope of stopping frontrunner Donald Trump, who has the party in complete panic.
But he has performed indifferently to poorly in the nominating contests so far — winning only the one in Minnesota before Sunday, and is already facing calls to drop out.
Ted Cruz, another first-time Senator, has emerged as the chief alter native to Trump after winning t wo of t he four nominating contests on Saturday, adding to four from earlier.
Trump remains way ahead of them, winning 12 of those contests so f ar, and l eads Cruz 35.6% to 19.8% in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls.
A panicky party establishment is going all out to try and deny him the 1,237 delegates he needs to win the nomination.
On the Democratic side, Sanders, who is trailing Clinton 498 to 1,129 in the delegates count (winner needs 2,383), attacked her support for free trade agreements.
The exchange got testy at times, with Sander angrily snapping at Clinton to not interrupt him, something that he hasn’t done before, and it was widely noted.
“Excuse me, I’m talking,” he said to her during an exchange on Wall Street bailouts (government help during the 2008 financial crisis).
Four states hold their nominating contests on Tuesday.