Super Tuesday: Clinton, Trump look to pull away from rivals

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Super Tuesday: Clinton, Trump look to pull away from rivals
By JULIE PACE and JILL COLVIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Out front and looking ahead, Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton hope to begin charting a final path toward the general election on Super Tuesday, a delegate-rich day of primary contests likely to reveal candidates' strengths — and weaknesses — with a broad swath of American voters.

Elections were being held in a dozen states, from Vermont to Colorado, Alaska to Alabama, and a host of locations in between.

Trump and Clinton entered Super Tuesday having each won three of four early voting contests. Strong showings for both on Tuesday could start putting the nominations out of reach for other contenders.

Even before the results started flowing in, Trump was calling for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, one of his chief rivals, to give up if he didn't win anywhere on Tuesday.

"He has to get out," he told Fox News. "He hasn't won anything."

Rubio, along with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, is scrambling to block Trump's path to the nomination. Both senators have launched furious verbal attacks on the billionaire businessman in recent days, but some in the party establishment fear the anti-Trump campaign has come too late.

Cruz once saw the Southern states that vote Tuesday as his opportunity to stake his claim to the nomination. Now his campaign's future hinges on a victory in his home state of Texas, the biggest prize up for grabs.

Rubio's goal is even more modest. He's seeking to stay competitive in the delegate count and hoping to pull off a win in his home state of Florida on March 15.

Republicans spent months largely letting Trump go unchallenged, wrongly assuming that his populist appeal with voters would fizzle. Instead, he's appeared to only grow stronger, winning states and drawing broad support for some of his most controversial proposals.

In six of the states on Tuesday, large majorities of Republican voters said they supported a proposal to temporarily ban all non-citizen Muslims from entering the United States, an idea championed by Trump. Two-thirds of GOP voters in Texas, Virginia and Georgia, 7 in 10 in Tennessee, and nearly 8 in 10 in Alabama supported the proposal, according to early exit polls conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and television networks.

The worries among Republicans appeared to grow after Trump briefly refused to disavow former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke during a television interview. Trump later said he had not understood the interviewer who first raised the question about Duke, and he did repudiate him.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday that anyone who wants to be the Republican presidential nominee must reject any racist group or individual.

"When I see something that runs counter to who we are as a party and a country I will speak up. So today I want to be very clear about something: If a person wants to be the nominee of the Republican Party, there can be no evasion and no games. They must reject any group or cause that is built on bigotry," Ryan said.

The disarray among Republicans comes as Clinton appears to be tightening her grip on the Democratic field. She scored a blowout victory over Bernie Sanders in Saturday's South Carolina primary, a contest that underscored her strength with black voters.

Clinton's campaign is hoping that support will continue in Tuesday's contests in several Southern states with large black electorates. The former secretary of state is campaigning as best positioned to carry on the legacy of President Barack Obama, who remains extremely popular with black voters.

According to the Super Tuesday exit polls, Democratic voters were more likely to want a continuation of Obama's policies than switch to more liberal policies in eight of nine states where surveys were conducted.

Signaling her growing confidence, 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 in Springfield, Massachusetts. "It really undermines our fabric as a nation."

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 other states including Minnesota and his home state of Vermont. But Sanders faces tough questions about whether he can rally minorities who are core Democratic voters.

After he voted Tuesday in his hometown of Burlington, 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.

States holding voting contests in both parties are Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia. Republicans also vote in Alaska and Democrats in Colorado. Democrats also have a contest in American Samoa and for Democrats Abroad.
___

Colvin reported from Valdosta, Georgia. AP writers Alan Fram and Andrew Taylor contributed to this report.


-- (c) Associated Press 2016-03-02

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Clinton wins Democratic primary elections in Georgia and Virginia; Sanders takes Vermont.

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Trump wins Alabama, Massachusetts, Tennessee primary elections; Clinton wins Alabama, Tennessee.

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Donald Trump projected to win US Republican 'Super Tuesday' votes in Tennessee, Alabama, Massachusetts and Georgia /BBC

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Hillary Clinton wins Democratic presidential primary in Arkansas.

[NeverSure]

Hillary is winning all of the states where Democrats usually lose. Sanders is doing best in states that are traditional D states. This doesn't bode well for Hillary.

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Clinton wins 5 states on Super Tuesday; Trump 4

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrat Hillary Clinton won at least five states and Republican Donald Trump at least four in Super Tuesday elections, the biggest day of the primary campaign. Clinton's rival Bernie Sanders won his home state of Vermont.

Clinton and Trump were pressing for sweeping victories that could distance them from their party rivals and move them closer to a November presidential election showdown. Nominating contests were being held Tuesday in 12 of the 50 U.S. states.

Clinton, the former secretary of state and senator, won in Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and Virginia. Trump won in Alabama, Massachusetts, Tennessee and Georgia. Voting was still ongoing in other contests or the races were too close to call.

Trump, the brash billionaire and reality TV star, has stunned the Republican political establishment by winning three of the first four contests, seizing on the anxieties of voters angry at Washington and worried about terrorism, immigration and an uncertain economy. Using simple terms, and often coarse language, he has soared to the top of polls with his pledge to "make America great again."

Republican officials, fearing a Trump sweep, have been lashing out at his temperament and command of the issues in the hours before voting began.

"You've got a con man and a bully who is moving forward with great speed to grab the party's mantle to be its standard bearer," Norm Coleman, a former senator who backs Marco Rubio, said in an interview with The Associated Press. "That's almost incomprehensible."

Clinton, once seen as the all-but-inevitable Democratic nominee, has contended with an unexpectedly strong challenge from Sanders, a senator and self-described democratic socialist. But Clinton, like Trump, had also won three of the first four races, and a landslide victory in South Carolina on Saturday bodes well for prospects in important southern states Tuesday due to her overwhelming support among black voters.

Candidates are vying to win delegates who will vote for them at the parties' conventions in July. For Republicans, 595 delegates were at stake, nearly half of the 1,237 needed for the nomination. Democrats were allocating 865, delegates more than one-third of the 2,383 needed to become the nominee.

Tuesday's vote was critical for the two leading Republicans vying to be Trump's main challenger: Ted Cruz, a firebrand conservative senator from Texas, and Rubio, a Florida senator who has become the favorite of much of the Republican establishment.

Both senators have launched furious verbal attacks on Trump in recent days, but some in the party establishment fear the anti-Trump campaign has come too late.

Cruz once saw the Southern states that vote Tuesday as his opportunity to stake his claim to the nomination, given their large evangelical Christian populations, only to see Trump pick up a sizable segment of evangelicals. Now the Cruz campaign's future hinges on a victory in his home state of Texas, the biggest prize up for grabs.

Rubio's goal is even more modest. He's seeking to stay competitive in the delegate count and hoping to pull off a win in his home state of Florida on March 15.

Even before the results started flowing in, Trump was calling for Rubio to quit the race if he didn't win anywhere on Tuesday.

"He has to get out," he told Fox News. "He hasn't won anything."

Ohio Gov. John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson remain in the race, but neither is expected to be a major factor on Tuesday.

Republicans spent months largely letting Trump go unchallenged, wrongly assuming that his populist appeal with voters would fizzle. Instead, he's appeared to only grow stronger, winning states and drawing support for some of his most controversial proposals.

In six of the states voting Tuesday, large majorities of Republican voters said they supported a proposal to temporarily ban all non-citizen Muslims from entering the United States, an idea championed by Trump. The exit polls were conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and television networks.

Republicans fear Trump will damage their prospects of recapturing the White House after Barack Obama's two terms. The worries appeared to grow after Trump briefly refused to disavow the apparent support of a former Ku Klux Klan leader, David Duke, during a television interview. Trump later said he had not understood the TV interviewer and he did repudiate Duke.

The disarray among Republicans comes as Clinton, seeking to become America's first female president, has tightened her grip on the Democratic race. She has increasingly turned her attention away from Sanders and on to Trump, 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 in Massachusetts. "It really undermines our fabric as a nation."

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 other states including Minnesota in addition to Vermont. But he faces tough questions about whether he can rally minorities who are core Democratic voters.

Democrats were voting in 11 states and American Samoa; Republicans were voting in 11 states.

-- (c) Associated Press 2016-03-02

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Donald Trump wins the Republican presidential primary in Virginia.

[NovaBlue05]

_{Watching Clinton giving her victory speech now. She's even more robotic than Rubio. May she could pay her husband a quarter million to give her speeches for her.}

[NeverSure]

A congresswoman and co-chair of the Democrat National Committee has stepped down to endorse Sanders. Slams Democrats.

LINK

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Clinton, Trump claim big Super Tuesday victories
By JULIE PACE and JILL COLVIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton swept through the South on Super Tuesday, with the front-runners claiming victory in their parties' primaries in Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. Clinton also picked up wins in Virginia and Arkansas, while Trump carried the GOP contest in Massachusetts.

Super Tuesday marked the busiest day of the 2016 primaries, with the biggest single-day delegate haul up for grabs. With elections in every region of the country, the contests put a spotlight on candidates' strengths and weaknesses with a broad swath of American voters.

For Clinton and Trump, the voting marked an opportunity to begin pulling away from their rivals and charting a course toward the general election. Each entered Super Tuesday having won three of four early voting contests, and more strong showings could start putting the nominations out of reach for other contenders.

As Trump's victories piled up, he fired off "thank you" Twitter notes to the states that landed in his win column. The billionaire businessman scheduled a nighttime news conference at his swanky Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, eschewing the traditional election night rally.

Clinton was steadying herself after an unexpectedly strong challenge from Bernie Sanders. The Vermont senator did carry his home state decisively on Tuesday, and told the crowd at a raucous victory party that he was "so proud to bring Vermont values all across this country."

Early exit polls underscored Sanders' continued weaknesses with black voters, a core part of the Democratic constituency. Clinton led with African-Americans, as well as both men and women, in Georgia and Virginia, according to surveys conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and television networks.

Sanders continued to show strength with young voters, carrying the majority of those under the age of 30.

Democrats were voting in 11 states and American Samoa, with 865 delegates up for grabs. Republicans were voting in 11 states, with 595 delegates at stake.

The contests come at a turbulent time for the GOP, given Trump's strengths in the face of opposition from many party leaders. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz launched furious verbal attacks on the billionaire businessman in recent days, but some in the party establishment fear the anti-Trump campaign has come too late.

Trump's wins in the South were a blow to Cruz, who once saw the region as his opportunity to stake a claim to the nomination. Now Cruz's future hinges on a victory in his home state of Texas, the biggest prize of the day.

Rubio's goal was even more modest. He was seeking to stay competitive in the delegate count and hoping to pull off a win in his home state of Florida on March 15.

In a fundraising email to supporters, Rubio's campaign said the senator "is not going to give up this fight — he'll do whatever it takes to stop Trump."

However, Rubio was expected to face quick calls from Trump to drop out of the race if he failed to pick up any wins.

"He has to get out," Trump told Fox News earlier in the day. "He hasn't won anything."

Republicans spent months largely letting Trump go unchallenged, wrongly assuming that his populist appeal with voters would fizzle. Instead, he's appeared to only grow stronger, winning states and drawing broad support for some of his most controversial proposals.

In six of the states on Tuesday, large majorities of Republican voters said they supported a proposal to temporarily ban all non-citizen Muslims from entering the United States, an idea championed by Trump. Two-thirds of GOP voters in Texas, Virginia and Georgia, 7 in 10 in Tennessee, and nearly 8 in 10 in Alabama supported the proposal, according to the early exit polls.

Worries among Republicans appeared to grow after Trump briefly refused to disavow former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke during a television interview. Trump later said he had not understood the interviewer who first raised the question about Duke, and he did repudiate him.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday that anyone who wants to be the Republican presidential nominee must reject any racist group or individual.

"When I see something that runs counter to who we are as a party and a country I will speak up. So today I want to be very clear about something: If a person wants to be the nominee of the Republican Party, there can be no evasion and no games," Ryan said.

The disarray among Republicans comes as Clinton appears to be tightening her grip on the Democratic field. In a sign of her growing confidence, the former secretary of state 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 in Springfield, Massachusetts, Monday. "It really undermines our fabric as a nation."

States holding voting contests in both parties were Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia. Republicans also vote in Alaska and Democrats in Colorado. Democrats also have a contest in American Samoa and for Democrats Abroad.
___

Colvin reported from Palm Beach, Florida. AP writer Julie Bykowicz in Washington and Ken Thomas in Burlington, Vermont, contributed to this report.


-- (c) Associated Press 2016-03-02

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton win the presidential primary elections in Texas.

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Ted Cruz wins the Republican presidential primary in Oklahoma.

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Bernie Sanders wins the Democratic presidential primary in Oklahoma.

[NeverSure]

Exit polls for the R's are saying that people want an outsider.

That's code for they want to stop illegal immigration.

[NeverSure]

Walt Disney's Goofy has won exactly as many primaries as Rubio has. Zip. Yet because Rubio is the darling of the establishment (after Jeb Bush got creamed) he's sticking around with big money backing.

[happy Joe]

Normally it was time for Republicans to govern in a democratic alternation logic.

Bad luck ! Trump will be the candidate ...

[Chicog]

Hillary is winning all of the states where Democrats usually lose. Sanders is doing best in states that are traditional D states. This doesn't bode well for Hillary.

You little joker you

Clinton is mopping up.

Get ready for Clinton vs. Trump!

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Clinton carries 6 states, Trump 5, Sanders 2, Cruz 2 /CNN

[keemapoot]

Looks like for boy wonder, Marco, it's about time for summer vacation.

[pedro01]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Ted Cruz wins the Republican presidential primary in Oklahoma.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton win the presidential primary elections in Texas.

The count is not complete in either of these states, yet CNN/AP has this as breaking news.

But Trump being ahead everywhere else isn't breaking news.

[Chicog]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Ted Cruz wins the Republican presidential primary in Oklahoma.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton win the presidential primary elections in Texas.

The count is not complete in either of these states, yet CNN/AP has this as breaking news.

But Trump being ahead everywhere else isn't breaking news.

Fox are calling races with 6% of the votes in. It's just the news biz these days.

[NeverSure]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Ted Cruz wins the Republican presidential primary in Oklahoma.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton win the presidential primary elections in Texas.

The count is not complete in either of these states, yet CNN/AP has this as breaking news.

But Trump being ahead everywhere else isn't breaking news.

With a small amount actually counted, the news people do exit polls about how people voted and have info far ahead of actual counting. I've seen them get this wrong only once that I recall.

Cheers.

[keemapoot]

We really are watching the meltdown and disintegration of the GOP. It's about damn time. Now, we need to dismantle the Dems too.

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/analysis-super-tuesday-bringing-super-meltdown-republican-party-203036054.html

[NeverSure]

Trump's speech tonight was gracious and humble. He said nice things about his opponents. He can let up now until he gets Hillary in his sights. Hillary has no clue what's in store for her, poor thing. She is a babe old woman in the woods compared to Trump. Hillary is about to get steamrolled.

[Publicus]

Hillary is winning all of the states where Democrats usually lose. Sanders is doing best in states that are traditional D states. This doesn't bode well for Hillary.

Voting today in these certain states is about each party, not the general election in November.

Each political party in each state is deciding who shall be its respective nominee.

We can talk on Sept 1 about each person who is nominated by each party.

For example, Alabama is a solid Red state but Democrats in Alabama are participating in who shall be nominated at the national convention in August in Philadelphia for Potus.

The Democratic party is whole, the Republican party is fracturing and shattering. Sayonara.

GOP RIP.

[NeverSure]

Well, we can see how much the Pope damaged Trump as in "none". Now if we could just get a UN resolution against Trump followed by a UK banning of Trump he'd get into the White House early.

Cheers.

[Lukecan]

Trump would of had a harder time against Bernie. He will eat hillary alive.

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Donald Trump wins the Republican presidential primary in Arkansas.

[NeverSure]

Trump was amazing in his speech tonight. Very calm, conciliatory to his rivals, and went into general election mode.

His theme was jobs, jobs, jobs. It's no wonder he's winning.