As expect Donald Trump is the big winner in the Republican Presidential Primary on Super Tuesday. In record turnouts, he has won 7 of 11 states. See the chart below for the numbers.
After these results Trump has a huge lead in the delegate count. Should the election be pared to just Cruz and Trump, Cruz would have a steep hill to climb to prevent Trump from reaching more than 50% of the delegate count. Trump currently has about 285 delegates of 1237 he needs for the nomination. Cruz, at 160 delegates would need to win in the near term by substantial amounts.
Governor Chris Christie introduced Trump for his victory speech tonight in Mira Lago. Christie has endorsed Trump after his own campaign ended after New Hampshire and appears to be fully supporting Trumps campaign. Speculation is Christie might make a very good Attorney General, or perhaps a VP candidate.
Ted Cruz took his home state of Texas and neighboring Oklahoma, plus a surprise victory in Alaska. In Oklahoma, the most recent polls had Trump ahead by at least 10 points, and Cruz running second or third. Cruz has won four states so far.
In his own victory speech, Cruz proclaimed it is now a contest between himself and Trump. He called on the other candidates to join him in defeating Trump (i.e. fold their own campaigns). He may have a point, should they want to gang up on Trump, they could conceivably garner the votes for Cruz to defeat him. But this is by no means certain, since 1) polls show Trump gets a substantial number of newly deciding voters, and 2) its not so easy to control where your supporters will go when you give up, even when you ask them nicely.
Senator Marco Rubio won Minnesota, followed by Cruz and then Trump. This was his first victory in any state, and Trump’s worst finish.
Although Kasich and Carson, seemed to alternate for last place in most states, Kasich claimed he has done better than expected. He was a distant second to Trump in Massachusetts and barely lost in Vermont. One commentator pointed out that Kasich likely cost Rubio the election in Virginia. Again, this is by no means certain.
So far none of the losing candidates have dropped out, all expecting to stay in for the next round.
Upcoming primaries,
March 5, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Maine.
March 8, Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan and Mississippi
March 12, Washington DC
March 15, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio
In the chart below, winning candidates are in blue, candidates not winning but still getting delegates are in green.
