Victories put Trump, Clinton on course for face-off
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REPUBLICAN Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton are turning their fire on one another as both emerged with strong victories in their parties’ Super Tuesday contests for the presidential nomination.
Trump and Clinton each won seven states in the biggest day in the primary campaign, building their leads in delegate counts that will determine each major party’s nominee this summer.
Tuesday’s outcome moves the contest closer to a Trump-Clinton showdown in the November election, likely be the starkest contrast in presidential candidates American voters have seen in their lifetime.
Clinton turned away from rival Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator who identifies himself as a democratic socialist, and set her sights on Trump during a victory rally in Miami.
“It’s clear tonight that the stakes in this election have never been higher and the rhetoric we’re hearing on the other side has never been lower,” said Clinton, who is trying to become America’s first female president.
Trump, too, had his eye on Clinton, casting her as part of a political establishment that has failed Americans.
“She’s been there for so long,” Trump told a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. “If she hasn’t straightened it out by now, she’s not going to straighten it out in the next four years.”
Trump’s dominance has shaken Republican leaders, who fear he is unelectable. Tuesday’s results did little to clarify which of two senators, Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio, might emerge as his main Republican rival, with both vowing to fight on despite weak performances.
Cruz, a firebrand conservative, won the biggest prize, his home state of Texas and neighboring Oklahoma, as well as Alaska, giving him four wins overall, including the leadoff Iowa caucuses. But he failed elsewhere in the South, where he had campaigned extensively.
Trump displayed surprising strength with evangelical Christians and social conservatives, once seen as a natural constituency for Cruz.
Still, Cruz called on Rubio and other candidates to step aside: “I ask you to prayerfully consider our coming together, united.”
Rubio emerged on Tuesday with his first victory, in the Minnesota caucuses, but did not live up to the hopes of many Republicans who have promoted him as the best alternative to Trump. His hopes are now on the March 15 primary in his home state of Florida, where the winner will claim all the delegates.
In the Democratic race, Clinton has faced a tougher-than-expected challenge from Sanders, who has energized supporters with his calls for a “political revolution” and denunciations of America’s wealth gap. But he has struggled to expand his base beyond young people and liberals.
Sanders won four states on Tuesday: Colorado, Minnesota, Oklahoma and his home state of Vermont. But Clinton won the biggest states and by wide margins, giving her a much larger share of delegates.
Clinton won in Texas, Massachusetts, Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and Virginia. The wins reflected her strength in the South, where black voters are an important part of the Democratic base. Clinton also won in the South Pacific island territory of American Samoa.
Trump won in Virginia, Arkansas, Alabama, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Vermont and Georgia.
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