Clinton, Trump retain leads despite losses
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SENATORS Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders scored key victories in their quest for the White House, but Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton remained their parties’ frontrunners as the “Super Saturday” results came in.
Republican Trump and Democrat Clinton both won in the delegate-rich state of Louisiana, keeping them on top at a critical point in the United States presidential race.
Results from votes in five states were split, but one element was clear: Republican Cruz boosted his claim as the most viable alternative to billionaire Trump after taking Kansas and Maine, and put poorly performing Senator Marco Rubio under pressure to turn his campaign around or bow out.
Sanders’s victories, meanwhile, showed that the self-described Democratic Socialist can stay in the race despite the long odds of defeating Clinton.
Cruz and Sanders can also claim momentum as they head toward critical races in Michigan tomorrow, and then winner-take-all races in the large states of Florida and Ohio on March 15.
“Thank you to Louisiana, and thank you to Kentucky,” Trump said in Florida, minutes after he won in Kentucky, where he led Cruz by four percentage points.
The races were the first test of whether the Republican establishment’s desperate effort led by 2012 nominee Mitt Romney to halt Trump is having any effect. Trump declared those efforts a failure and called on Rubio, once seen as the best hope to defeat him, to quit.
“Marco Rubio had a very, very bad night ... I’d call for him to drop out,” Trump said.
“I would love to be able to take on Ted one on one ... that will be easy,” he said.
Trump is well ahead in the all-important delegate count for Republicans, having won 12 of the 19 states to have voted.
But the strong showing by Cruz — who won more delegates than Trump on Saturday — indicates that the brash real estate mogul is not the inevitable nominee.
Arch-conservative Texas senator Cruz performed beyond expectations in Kansas, winning 48.2 percent support, against Trump’s 23.3 percent.
Third was Rubio at 16.7, followed by Ohio Governor John Kasich, who with a string of disappointing results must be also considering his position.
It was a startling 13-point win for Cruz in the more moderate New England region of Maine.
Cruz exulted in his victories during a campaign rally in Idaho, which did not vote on Saturday.
“The scream you hear — the howl that comes from Washington, DC — is utter terror at what we the people are doing together,” he said.
Among Democrats, Sanders savored victories in Kansas and Nebraska, pushing his total to seven victories from 18 contests.
“We’ve got the momentum, the energy and the excitement that will take us all the way to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia,” Sanders said in a statement.
Clinton decisively swept Louisiana, the weekend’s big prize, with 59 Democratic delegates at stake compared to 37 for Kansas and 25 for Nebraska.
The former secretary of state dominated in Louisiana, a state with a substantial African-American vote.
Sanders did well in the other two states in part because of their large white populations, a demographic with which he does well. Maine, also overwhelmingly white, was set to hold its Democratic caucus yesterday.
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