Presidential Primary Update

Post date: Apr 3, 2016 9:03:57 PM

By: Korey Alder, Photography Editor

Posted March 18th, 2016

The most recent primary, dubbed by some as a second “Super Tuesday,” saw many interesting developments in the Republican race for president, while things stayed relatively constant on the Democrats’ side.

The states holding primaries on March 15th included Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, and South Carolina. Ohio and Florida were the big states in this set, with winner-take-all delegate counts of 66 and 99, respectively. Being the home states of Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Ohio Governor John Kasich, these were also important places for these candidates to show that they were in fact capable of getting wins against Trump and Cruz, currently in the lead. Kasich did manage to pull off a win in Ohio, though this is not surprising as, in many polls, Kasich comes away with governor approval ratings above 60% from Ohioans. Granting him a boost, though hardly closing the gap between he and Cruz, the 66 delegates give Kasich a reason to keep in the fray. Rubio didn’t fare as well in his home state, where he lost to Trump by roughly 18%. Rubio fans were no doubt disappointed, although likely unsurprised, when the senator gave a speech explaining the suspension of his campaign. He retains his delegates, but has essentially given up on the presidency for this election year. These developments leave Trump and Cruz to battle it out for the remaining delegates, while Kasich stays in hope of grabbing the nomination at a brokered convention (and any delegates he can along the way). Currently, Trump maintains his lead with 673 delegates, followed by Cruz with 411, and Kasich with 143. There are 1061 delegates still remaining throughout the US, so Cruz could easily come back from second. With 1237 delegates required to ensure the nomination (and bypass a brokered convention), however, Kasich has no chance to do so, even if he won every single delegate from here on out.

The Democratic race is much as it has been for some time, with Hillary Clinton keeping a lead over Bernie Sanders. This lead still consists mostly of superdelegates, but she is ahead slightly ahead in standard delegates as well.