‘Super Saturday’: Cruz beats Trump, Sanders wins states, loses delegate race
The GOP race tightened after Saturday’s caucus and primaries with Ted Cruz splitting states with Donald Trump, but winning in delegate count. On the Democratic side, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders performed well, winning two races, but lost the overall delegate count to Hillary Clinton.
Cruz won big in Kansas, over 48% of the vote, earning 24 delegates to Trump’s nine. Florida Senator Marco Rubio was a distant third, earning only 6 delegates with Ohio Gov. John Kasich getting one.
Kentucky proved to be a tight race, Trump edging out Cruz 35.9 to 31.6%, 17 delegates to 15 for Cruz. Louisiana seemed to be set for a huge Trump win, but he and Cruz each received 18 delegates.
Maine was a Cruz victory, but proved to be the biggest let down for Rubio who finished last, behind Kasich.
For Democrats, Sanders won Kansas with 67.7% of the vote, earning 23 delegates to Clinton’s 10. Nebraska was a closer race, Sanders earning 14 delegates, Clinton again receiving ten.
Clinton dominated the south, as she did on Super Tuesday, with a big win in Louisiana, getting 71.1% of the vote and 35 delegates compared to Sanders’ 12.
Saturday delegate count:
Cruz 69
Trump 53
Rubio 18
Kasich 10
Saturday cemented the collapse by Rubio, who now is a distant third. In fact, a Florida victory would not be enough to catch Cruz. The call for Rubio and Kasich to drop out grows louder.
“What needs to happen is the field needs to continue to narrow. As long as the field remains divided it gives Donald an advantage,” Cruz said.
Trump congratulated Cruz for his victories. But he joked that it’s natural that Cruz won Maine because, “it’s very close to Canada, let’s face it.”