Trump Rolls On, take 3 of 4 States

Billionaire Donald Trump has easily defeated rival Senator Ted Cruz in Michigan, Mississipi and Hawaii, gaining valuable delegates. Senator Cruz took Idaho, Trump was second.

Cruz took second place in Michigan, an unexpected finish after Kasich showed well in the polls and appeared to be second in early voting returns. This was a bad loss for Kasich, since he expected to use the momentum of a second place finish to add to a potential victory in his home state of Ohio next week.

Senator Marco Rubio was the big loser of the night, receiving only 2 delegates from Hawaii.

With this result, The delegate count is:

• Trump 455
• Cruz 353
• Rubio 153
• Kasich 56

Total needed to win is 1237 delegates.

Next Tuesday has been described as a “second super Tuesday” with four of the largest seven states holding primaries. More importantly, Florida,  Ohio,Missouri and Illinois are winner take all states (only North Carolina has a proportional split of the delegates). 

If Trump is true to form he could immediately take 283 delegates plus a share of North Carolina’s 69. At that point it would be almost impossible for anyone to get more delegates. However, should momentum turn against Mr. Trump it is still possible he will not get enough votes to clinch the nomination.

About 1440 delegates remain, Mr. Trump needs to average 54% of the remaining delegates to win. However should he win the four states, and split North Carolina next Tuesday, he would only need a 41% share thereafter to get the nomination. This may not be as difficult as it seems considering most remaining states are winner take all states.