SANDERS STUNS HILLARY IN MICHIGAN
TRUMP MARCHES ON, TAKES THREE MORE STATES
MIAMI, FLORIDA: Bernie Sanders scored an upset win over Hillary Clinton in Michigan as Donald Trump continued his march towards the Republican nomination by winning two primaries on Tuesday.
Clinton had led Michigan in polls so comprehensively by such a wide margin — 58.7% to Sanders’s 37.3% in the average of polls – that the state was said to be hers to lose. Yet she did.
No one saw it coming, not even Sanders. “Something amazing is happening in the state of Michigan,” he said in an email to supporters when a victory began looking possible.
Clinton won Mississippi, ending the night in a tie. She now has 12 wins to Sanders’s nine. In the count of delegates, she has 1,215 and Sanders has 566 — to win the Democratic nomination a candidate must get 2,383.
In the Republican race, Trump won Michigan, the big prize, and Mississippi, taking up his tally so far to 14 wins; and Ted Cruz won Idaho, moving his wins up to seven.
Republicans held primaries in three states on Tuesday — Michigan, Mississippi and Idaho, and caucuses in Hawaii. Democrats had primaries in Michigan and Mississippi.
Trump’s recent victories, since the March 1 Super Tuesday, have come in the face of stiff opposition from Republican leaders either directly, such as Mitt Romney, or through surrogates.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had so many horrible, horrible things said about me in one week,” Trump said, opening his victory speech at one his golf resorts here in Florida.
“$38 million worth of horrible lies,” he added, referring to negative ads that have flooded states which held their nominating contest on Tuesday and those that are coming up.
Florida and Ohio that primary on March 15 are the two prize contests which are expected to determine if Trump will be the nominee or is stopped by one of the other three still in the race.
Cruz is currently number two but he was relegated to the third slot in Michigan by John Kasich, who has not won anything yet but hopes to turn the race by winning in Ohio, his home-state.
But he is trailing Trump in the RealClearPolitics average of polls 34.5% to 30.5% there. It’s going to be a do-or-die contest for him; he will come under pressure to quit if he loses there.
As it is for Marco Rubio. Despite his two primary wins so far, he needs to win Florida, his home-state, to stay in the race. But he is trailing Trump, and by a wide margin, 25.7% to 41.7%.