Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 01:56 pm
Here are the winners and losers from super duper Tuesday.
Winners and Losers:
Winners:
1).Hillary Clinton – Super Duper Tuesday could not have gone better for Hillary Clinton if she scripted it herself. After winning Florida by a huge margin, Clinton was guaranteed to expand her delegate lead. Her win in Ohio may have put the Democratic nomination out of reach for Bernie Sanders. Except for thanking Sanders for running a vigorous campaign, Clinton’s speech was focused on Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton is now free to shift towards the general election, and her first volley at Trump was doozy. Clinton is already painting the contrast between herself and Trump. It was a dominating night in terms of delegates for former Sec. of State Clinton, and things may only get better from here.
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2).John Kasich- The Republican Party needed Kasich to step up and deny a victory to Trump in his home state, and unlike Marco Rubio, he delivered. A Republican nomination probably isn’t the cards for Kasich, but if he forces a brokered convention that denies Trump the Republican nomination, he will have done his job. Kasich is going to stay in the race, but for a candidate who didn’t win anything outside of his home state, it is difficult to see him being a factor for the nomination.
3). Donald Trump – Out of the five Republican primaries, Trump got big wins in Florida and Illinois, and North Carolina. The bloom is slightly off the Trump rose as it is clear that he is not going to steamroll his way to the Republican nomination. The loss in Ohio might have been expected, but it still hurts. The Republican race is now centered around the question of whether or not the party can deny Trump enough delegates to clinch the nomination outright.
Listen to Sarah Jones and Jason Easley discuss the winners and losers:
Losers:
1).Marco Rubio – The ride is over for Rubio. The candidate that the establishment of the Republican Party picked to save them after Jeb Bush failed to launch got crushed in his home state of Florida by nearly 20 points. Ironically, Rubio may have given his best speech of his entire campaign as he was suspending his campaign. Rubio’s speech made it clear that he despises Donald Trump and the type of campaign that he is running. On the same day that it was reported that top conservatives were gathering to investigate the possibility of a third party conservative run if Trump is the Republican nominee, it was interesting that Rubio used his speech to define his meaning of conservatism.
2). Bernie Sanders – Super Duper Tuesday may have been the night where the dream of Bernie Sanders becoming the Democratic nominee was put out of reach. Sanders promised that he would win Ohio, but he was thumped by Hillary Clinton. Sanders has not been able to make inroads with African-Americans and was blown out in the South. The Clinton win in Ohio crushed the Sanders industrial Midwestern strategy. Bernie Sanders may pick up some wins out West, but his campaign realized the value of proportional delegate allocation too late. It isn’t about winning states. The Democratic nomination is decided by the margin of victory. Bernie Sanders has blown out by too big of a margin in too many big delegate states, and it finally caught up to him on Super Duper Tuesday. Even if Sanders pulls out wins in Missouri and Illinois, they would be at best moral victories. Sanders continues to split the vote far too often while Clinton wins big.
3). Ted Cruz- Out of five Republican primaries, Ted Cruz has won exactly none. Cruz keeps positioning himself as the only candidate who can beat Trump, but there is a very good possibility that Cruz gets shut out. At best, Cruz might pull off a win in Missouri, but one for five is not the mark of a great contender.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
