If the polling numbers turn out to be true, the long and contentious 2016 presidential primaries may be over soon. Both Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton are eyeing an opportunity to pull away from their rivals in today’s Super Tuesday primaries, a delegate-rich dash across the country that could decide the party choices for the 2016 general election.
Voters from Vermont to Colorado to Alaska — and a host of states in between — were heading to polling places and caucus sites on the busiest day of the 2016 primaries.
The contests come at a turbulent moment for Republicans as they grapple with the prospect of Trump becoming the party’s nominee. Rivals Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are engaged in a frantic effort to stop the billionaire — with Rubio in particular lobbing surprisingly personal attacks — but it was unclear whether they’d made their move too late.
Trump said his support crossed party lines and that he has even brought Democrats into the GOP.
“We’re getting people into the party that they’ve never had before,” he told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Tuesday. “I can tell you the one person Hillary Clinton doesn’t want to run against is me.”
Like Trump, Clinton has won three of the four early voting contests, including a thrashing of rival Bernie Sanders in South Carolina on Saturday. Her victory there was due to overwhelming support from black voters, putting her in position for a strong showing in several Southern states with large African-American electorates that vote Tuesday.
Clinton has increasingly turned her attention to Trump in recent days, casting herself as a civil alternative to the insults and bullying that have consumed the Republican race.
“What we can’t let happen is the scapegoating, the flaming, the finger pointing that is going on the Republican side,” she told voters gathered in Springfield, Massachusetts. “It really undermines our fabric as a nation. So, I want to do everything I can in this campaign to set us on a different course.”
Sanders, who has energized young voters with his call for a political revolution, was seeking to stay close to Clinton in the South and pick up victories in states including Minnesota and his home state of Vermont. But Sanders faces tough questions about whether he can rally minorities that are core Democratic voters.
After he voted Tuesday in his hometown of Burlington, Vermont, Sanders told reporters that if voter turnout is high “we are going to do well. If not, we’re probably going to be struggling.”
Democrats will vote in 11 states and American Samoa on Tuesday, with 865 delegates up for grabs. Republicans will vote in 11 states, with 595 delegates at stake.
Trump was seeking to sweep the South, which would be a massive blow for Cruz. The Texas senator, a favorite of the region’s social conservatives and evangelical Christians, expected the South to be his firewall, but now is simply hoping to emerge with a victory in his home state.
Rubio’s goal on Super Tuesday is even more modest. He’s seeking to stay competitive in the delegate count and hopes to pull off a win in his home state of Florida on March 15.
The Florida senator has cast himself as Republicans’ best chance to win in a general election and has received a flood of endorsements from GOP officials after other more mainstream candidates dropped out. But he’s failed to win a state so far, raising questions about his strategy for topping Trump.
Republicans spent months largely letting Trump go unchallenged, wrongly assuming that his populist appeal with voters would fizzle. Now party leaders are divided between those who pledge to fall in line behind Trump if he wins their party’s nomination and others who insist they can never back him.
An Associated Press survey of GOP senators and governors across the country showed just under half of respondents would not commit to backing Trump if he’s the nominee. Their reluctance foreshadowed a potentially extraordinary split in the party this fall.
“If he becomes the nominee the Democrats are going to savage him, no question about it,” GOP Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch said. His Republican colleague from Arizona, Jeff Flake, said he was “still holding out hope” that he wouldn’t have to make the choice about supporting Trump.
States holding voting contests in both parties Tuesday are Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia. Republicans vote in Alaska and Democrats in Colorado. Democrats also have a contest in American Samoa and for Democrats Abroad.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
I’m a Democrat. I’m voting for Sanders today as a protest against hypocrite Hillary. Then in November, I’m voting for Trump. It’s in the Boston papers today as to how over 20,000 Massachusetts Democrats changed to Independent last month so they can vote for Trump.
bengasy will bring her down with all her lies
especialy [what difference does it make ] statement
she is another OBUMER in slacks
and she is not for womens rights either
when she slams those women that slick willy[her husband ]
took advantage of
he is PERVERT OF FIRST CLASS
The Beast !!!
Way to go Main Street! I think it will be Uncle Joe Biden versus Trump after the Hillary indictment, so basically it could end up the oldest entrenched establishment Biden versus the new outsider Trump… It would be close but clear cut in voter decisions I think.
Very intelligent tactic. I applaud you! We’re going to get our Country back yet!
Good thinking 🙂
Yep, it’s do or die time.
More than likely this is our last election.
EVERYBODY SAYS HILLARY WILL WIN, IM NOT SO SURE, TRUMP HAS PROMISED TO FIX WHATS WRONG WITH THE COUNTRY, HILLARY IS JUST MORE OF THE SAME, AND HAS NEVER ADDRESSED THE 20 TRILLION WE ARE IN DEBT, WHEN YOU ARE RICH YOU PROBABLY DONT CARE, THE PROBLEM WILL NEVER EFFECT THOSE FOLKS. BUT HOW BOUT THE REST OF US? WE SCREAM NOBODY LISTENS. THE LOWER YOU ARE THE WORSE IT GETS, UNTIL YOU ARE PUSHING A CART LOOKING FOR A DRY SPOT TO SLEEP UNDER THE FREEWAY. yes we are people also.
I don’t think Hillary stands a snowball’s chance in h—of winning against Trump.
Has he told you how he’s going to do it? I didn’t think so. Now he’s backing up on his deportation stand. Now he says he may have to negotiate. Now I think he realizes he can’t do what he says he’s going to do. Trump looooves the poorly educated. One has to remember that it was the poorly educated that elected Obama twice. Leave that as a reminder.
Trump loves all people…… please just take one sentence and manipulate it like the media, stupid is as stupid does!!! You are full of it!!!! DO YOU REALLY THINK HE IS GOING TO GIVE THE OTHER CANDIDATES ANY CLUE OF HIS CREATIVE IDEAS BEFORE HE IS THE NOMINEE???? Hell NO, he has already said he will not show his hand in anything, military or otherwise…. Come on people, wake up and get out of the obamavomit way of thinking and crawl your tail out of the gutters!!!!! Trump WILL MAKE US GREAT AGAIN!!!! iDOITS…. SO SAD LITTLE MAN.
Main Street-
Good on you! The only thing i’d add to “hypocrite” is “unindicted criminal,” which she’s been since the Arkansas governor days.
Frankly, her wins surprise me a great deal; i had NO idea that this many Americans were so incredibly stupid and/or determinedly ignorant as to vote for this sorry excuse of a duty-shirking, criminal, dancing monkey for the New World Order and One World Government.
Me either, no wonder our country is going down the tubes!!!! Crazies everywhere!!!!! Wow
thank you Sir so we can get OUR country back in order thank YOU!
your vote would matter a lot more sensibly if you vote for TRUMP
You are so correct Dan!
Why doesn’t the FBI recommend to the DOJ to indict this lying piece of horse-shit already. If the DOJ does not indict after the FBI’s recommendation there will be big time fall-out for Obama’s administration and legacy. She and her family are a disgrace to this Country and the Human Race. 4-8 Years of Hil-Liar-y will be the END for us ALL. Do Not Vote For This lying,hypocrite, thieving excuse of a heart beat. Hopefully Trump wins and indicts her and that idiot POTUS, they would make good cell mates.
The investigation is over yet.
The greedy, lazy members in the House and Senate don’t want Trump because he will stop the outrageous spending. Their staffs are top heavy and it takes the cake to hear Lindsey dumdum Graham to report he has been working on getting the “wall” up for ten years. Yep that is their idea of “job security”. Washington better get behind Trump or I too will change to Independent after this election. Most of our Representatives and Senators in State and Washington are nothing more than parasites. And a vote for Hillary puts Billy Boy right back in the White House. Disgusting.
this will be my first time voting as an independent. after looking at the benefits these self serving pos have voted in for them selves is mind boggling, special health care, free school for their kids, and the list goes on, im not a commie and I don’t resent wealthy folks, but what makes these people so special? we sent them there to do a job instead they screwed us, they vote big raises for themselves, we the people should control the purse strings!
ABSOLUTLEY CORRECT AND SPEAKING OF OUTRAGEOUS SPENDING I JUST RECENTLY READ THAT THE OBAMA GROUP SPENT OVER ONE
BILLION DOLLARS JUST ON FAMILY VACATIONS……….IMAGINE WHAT A BILLION DOLLARS COULD DO FOR OUR BRAVE WOUNDED WARRIORS OR THE THOUSAND UPON THOUSAND HOMELESS PEOPLE OR MANY MANY OTHER WORTHY PROJECTS??……….BUT NONE OF THE GUTLESS…………SPINLESS PHONIES IN WASHINGTON HAVE THE GUTS OR DESIRE TO SPEAK UP AND PUT A STOP TO THIS GREEDY HABIT OF THE OBAMAS……….
Thomas you are absolutely right. But congress has also gotten away with so many free bees on the backs of poor working Americans. Bringing in illegals to take over our jobs and they would like us to make two dollars an hour. All the while they live high off the hog and stuff money in there own pockets. I think that most people have woke up I am voting Trump he is our last hope.
Their staffs aren’t top heavy. Each congressman and senator is given money to run their offices and hire their staff per year. If they can hire what they need and stay under this budget good for them.
People obviously want a change and if Trump pulls way ahead that will prove it.They say that Trump doesn’t have a prayer against Hillary,while i am saying that Rubio will lose to Clinton because he is of the same crowd people are complaining about.If Trump is nominated he may lose to Hillary but he is still the GOPS best chance,if indeed it is about a change in Washington politics.Trump is leading and i do believe that there are cross over democrats who are firmly for the wall Donald is talking about,and that alone will get cross overs.Trump may be brash and to the point but it is exactly that which has put him in a very good position,he says things that many people say in their parlors where no one can hear them and they love Trump for being so outspoken.
There’s not one poll out there that show’s Trump can beat Clinton. He’s losing by 6-8 points against. Polls are showig Rubio can beat her and so can Cruz. And you know Trump. He loves polls.
This super delegate system really is patronizing to the American electorate and it would be a disaster for democracy if their votes are sufficient to swing the overall vote in favour of Clinton – as to the Republicans, sadly none of the contestants impress greatly but if bellicose Trump turns out to be the electorates’ choice then for that democratic virtue alone he ought to be nominated by the party.
The only thing about the Super Delegates is they can change their minds during the convention.
“We’re getting people into the party that they’ve never had before,” like Planned Parenthood and others who would never think of supporting a pro-life conservative Christian for president. We may be watching a repeat of 2008 and 2012 in the Republican party where the person who wins the majority of delegates doesn’t actually win the hearts and minds of Republicans.
I know Donald has many supporters. I’m not one of them. I had hoped Republicans would nominate a president with a track record of supporting conservative causes and was able to act civil. That’s looking less likely with each passing election.
For Clinton, Sanders is a reminder of how a fringe candidate was able to demonstrate that many Democrats don’t want Hillary to be president.
The way I see it trump is the only one truly laying out his agenda for all to attack. As far as specifics its to early to lay it all out because the other republicans steal and copy all of. his ideas. Like the wall, border security, imagration, jobs, etc. The other tout what they cla I’m to have done. I don’t see results to support there statements. As a long time republican I feel like charlie brown ever time I try to do my part to kick the ball toward the goal the GOP Lucy pulls the ball away. Then they throw the other team interceptionS and other team wins ever game. No one blocks they just smash us over and over. I am sick of it. I want a fighter beating Hillery will be a mud fight. Donald is a qualified mud fighter
How is Trump going to do any of this? He’s already backing down on his deportations. He’s just a lot of bluster and no results.
Our HOLY FATHER GOD ALMIGHTY, in JESUS’ NAME we YOUR children pray for YOUR KINGDOM to come now and for YOUR WILL to be done here and now and everywhere forever! Praise and thank YOU now and forever! MARANATHA! AMEN!
Trump is no saint either. He will not show his tax return because of an audit. ‘I’m sure he has copies of every page. What is he hiding? He did not have to cut every one down with his ugly rhetoric. Will he use that language in the oval office? Will he fire his staff when they make a mistake as he did on a broadcast because of a malfunctioning microphone. My choice is one who has great stragegies and does not sling the mud – John Kasich! IRL
The RNC is trying to take you vote away. Everyone email the RNC and have your voice heard. DAILY!!! Email to:
[email protected]