The year’s biggest night in voting so far wrapped up last night [March 1, 2016], with Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump walking away with major wins in the nation’s Super Tuesday contests.
On the Left, things remain the way many predicted, with Clinton taking the lead among older voters, minority voters, and female voters while Bernie Sanders managed to take his victories on the strength of his popularity with younger voters, white voters and male voters.
In total Sanders took home four states: Oklahoma, Minnesota, Colorado and his home state of Vermont. Clinton claimed the win in seven states: Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, Texas, and Massachusetts, a state where Senator Sanders was expected to take the win.
Over at the GOP camp, Trump remained the top contender winning over seven states, while Ted Cruz emerged as the top establishment candidate of the night, winning his home state of Texas and Oklahoma.
Marco Rubio found himself vacillating between second and third place finishes in most of Tuesday’s contests, pushing out a win in Minnesota.
The remaining candidates, John Kasich and Ben Carson finished the day without a winning spot in any state, a fact that is costing the establishment votes against Donald Trump. During Cruz’s speech he made an attempt at gracefully requesting these candidates bow out.
“For the candidates who have not yet won a state, who have not racked up significant delegates, I ask for you to prayerfully consider our coming together,” he said.
Freeing up more votes is what would propel any top establishment candidate against outsider Donald Trump, and Ted Cruz knows it.
Now, all eyes will shift to March 15. While candidates will be making stops to other states before then in preparation for the March 5, 6, 8 and 12 contests, March 15 will mark one of the most important nights of the election year, especially as candidates enter the states of Florida and Ohio.
