In the Ohio Republican primary held last week, the Gannett-owned Cincinnati Enquirer went all in for Gov. John Kasich and lambasted Donald Trump at every turn. Kasich succeeded in denying Trump a win in his delegate-rich home state with a winner-take-all rule. Tonight, Trump rolled to an easy victory in Arizona in spite of the full-court press by the Gannett-owned Arizona Republic put on to deny Trump a win in another winner-take-all state. It urged the state's voters to back Kasich. It looks like the hard line on immigration enforcement trumps the open borders position taken by Gannett in this border state.
Trump collected all of Arizona's 58 delegates, capturing about 47% of the vote, more than 20 points higher than Ted Cruz' distant second place finish. Kasich received just 10% of the vote. What's particularly interesting about Trump's win in Arizona is that his winning percentage almost matches what Sen. John McCain and Mitt Romney each received in this state when they were on the way to winning the Republican nomination in 2008 and 2012, respectively. McCain and Romney each received about 47% of the vote. It's McCain's home state, and it has a large Mormon population. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton smashed Bernie Sanders in Arizona, winning better than 60% of the vote.
Republican and Democratic voters are also caucusing in Utah tonight. Ted Cruz is expected to win Utah easily, one of Mitt Romney's home states with a large Mormon population. Romney urged Utah Republicans to support Cruz. There are 40 Republican delegates at stake in Utah. Democrats are also caucusing in Idaho tonight. Even if Sanders managed to pull off wins in Utah and Idaho tonight, he's too far behind to catch Clinton's insurmountable lead.
UPDATE: Sanders easily beat Clinton in the two caucus elections in Idaho and Utah with 78% and 80% of the vote, respectively. Cruz won the Utah caucus vote with 69% of the vote. Kasich and Trump got just 17% and 14% of the vote, respectively. Interestingly, Marco Rubio got a larger share of the vote in Arizona than Kasich despite the fact he has dropped out of the race. Rubio came in third with 13% of the vote.
Here's how the delegate count stands now:
Trump-739
Cruz-465
Kasich-143
Clinton-1,681
Sanders-927
No comments:
Post a Comment