Tuesday, March 1 was a big day on the road to November’s presidential elections. Unofficially nicknamed “Super Tuesday,” it is when a dozen states (and one US territory) held nominating contests to narrow down party candidates during the primaries.
Also known as the “SEC Primary,” 661 Republican delegates and 865 Democratic delegates were allocated on Super Tuesday. It is the only day in which a single candidate has a bigger chance to declare certainty over his or her nomination, with that many delegates grouped at once, reported Politico.
Real estate billionaire Donald Trump was the clear winner for the Republican Party on Tuesday night, with 319 total delegate counts—the most of any candidate in the field. Trump won the votes in seven states, including Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Virginia, and Vermont.
New Jersey governor (and former candidate) Chris Christie also stunned the nation by endorsing Trump, standing awkwardly behind him during Trump’s Tuesday night address in Palm Beach, Florida.
“I am a unifier, I know people are going to find that a little bit hard to believe, but believe me that I am a unifier,” Trump told his supporters. “Once we get all of this finished, I am going to go after one person—that’s Hillary Clinton, on the assumption that she’s allowed to run.”
Trump’s main rival Hillary Clinton, however, also had a good night. The former Secretary of State won overwhelmingly in all of the big, delegate-awarding states (Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia), with 577 counts. According to Washington Post, Clinton also had major support (more than 80 percent in Georgia and Virginia) of the black vote.
“Instead of building walls, we’re going to break down barriers, and build ladders of opportunity and empowerment, so that every American live up to his or her potential,” Clinton said in her remarks. “Then, and only then, can America live up to its full potential too.”
The question that now remains is whether both strong candidates can get the rest of the delegate votes needed to win the party nomination.
For the Republicans, despite Trump’s dominance in the field, Texas Senator Ted Cruz took three states—Alaska, Oklahoma, and Texas—and won 226 delegates. Cruz is favored to be the alternative to Trump, given that a loss in his home state would have effectively ended his campaign.
Meanwhile, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio struggled behind, winning the vote in just one state (Minnesota) and 110 delegates. Trailing behind at the end of the night was Ohio Governor John Kasich (25 delegates) and Dr. Ben Carson (eight delegates).
The Republican candidates need a total 1,237 delegates to win the party nomination.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders ultimately lost that night, with just four states (Colorado, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and his home state Vermont) and 386 delegates, out of the 2,383 needed to win for the Democrat nomination.
In his speech given at his home state, before the final results of Super Tuesday votes, Sanders said, “You know, we want to win in every part of the country, that goes without saying. But it does say something and means so much to me that the people who know me best, the people who knew me before I was elected, who knew me as mayor, knew me as congressman, and know me as senator, have voted so strongly to put us in the White House.”
After Super Tuesday, the next crucial votes will take place on Saturday, March 5, with the Louisiana primaries and Kansas caucuses. Over the weekend, Republicans will also vote in Kentucky and Maine, while Democrats will vote in Nebraska, and in Maine on March 6.
Poll: Clinton and Sanders both top Trump
According to a new CNN/ORC International poll, Trump is not leading among US voters after all.
The poll, which sampled at least 1,000 telephone interviews with American adults between February 24-27, and included at least 920 interviews among registered voters, concluded that both of the remaining Democratic candidates easily beat out Republican frontrunner Trump.
Although Clinton won by a landslide over the weekend in the South Carolina primary, putting her well ahead in the race for the Democratic nomination, she is likely to face stronger Republican opposition between Rubio or Cruz.
According to the poll’s hypothetical match-up scenario, which appears most likely to emerge from the looming primaries, Clinton tops Trump 52 percent to 44 percent among registered voters. The result has also slanted in Clinton’s favor, since the last CNN/ORC poll in January.
Against Rubio and Cruz, however, Clinton faces the same likability challenge in the polls. The former Secretary of State trails closely behind Rubio, 50 percent to 47 percent, and she holds 48 percent to Cruz’s 49 percent, narrowing the race match-up from 3 points to 1.
Sanders, who has the most positive favorable rating (60 percent of registered voters) of any presidential candidate in the whole field, beat out all three Republicans by wide margins: outnumbering Cruz 57 to 40 percent; crushing Trump 55 to 43 percent, and 53 to 45 percent against Rubio.
Sanders also fares better than Clinton in each match-up among men, young voters, and independents.
Overall, Clinton and Trump are still seen unfavorably by majorities of voters: almost 6-in-10 have a negative view of Trump, with 38 percent in favor; while 53 percent have a negative view of Clinton, 44 percent positive.
Cruz also has a net negative rating, while impressions of Carson, Rubio, and Kasich leaned positive.
According to the poll, 78 percent of US voters (including almost the same share among Democrats, Republicans and Independents) say that the nation is even “more deeply divided on major issues facing the country,” than it has been in the past.
The nationwide survey asked voters to choose which of all the remaining top candidates, regardless of party, they trust most to handle seven key issues. According to CNN, Trump tops the list on the economy, terrorism and immigration, while Clinton is the top choice when it comes to health care, race relations and foreign policy. Voters are about evenly split between Trump and Clinton on gun policy.
Though the share of leaned Republican voters choosing Clinton on any of the tested issues tops out at 8 percent on health care, Trump is the most trusted for 15 percent of leaned Democrats on terrorism, 14 percent on the economy and 13 percent on immigration.
Republicans generally have the edge on the economy, terrorism, immigration and gun policy, while more voters choose either Sanders or Clinton on race relations and health care. Foreign policy has about an even split between the two parties.
The margin of sampling error for the results, based on the total sample, is plus or minus three percentage points.
