Super Tuesday is likely to be a huge day for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, who lead in a CNN/ORC national poll released Monday. The billionaire got 49% of the GOP primary vote, 30 points ahead of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio while Clinton tops Bernie Sanders 55% to 38%.
The former secretary of state had a massive win in South Carolina on Saturday and is very aware of the tougher-than-expected campaign against Sanders as she keeps showing the strength of the base of her bid: minority voters in the south. Meanwhile, Trump is trying to leave behind a controversy after he apparently failed to reject former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
What’s at stake?
The presidential candidates on Tuesday will be competing in Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia. The contest will be decisive in determining who will be electable in the fall to move to the White House.
The GOP candidates are facing off for 595 of the 1,237 delegates needed to win the Republican race while a total of 865 Democrat delegates are up for grabs of the 2,383 delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination.
Marco Rubio is determined to prevent Trump from becoming the GOP nominee
Rubio says Trump is “unelectable” and affirms he will do whatever it takes to stop him. He insists on the idea that most Republican voters do not want the controversial billionaire to become the party’s nominee, as reported by CNN. After the last GOP debate, Rubio’s campaign manager Terry Sullivan said that no one would get 1,237 delegates on Tuesday or the following Tuesday.
“I can tell you this, I don’t care about if I have to get in my pickup truck and drive around the country like I did when I ran for the state senate. Donald Trump will never be the nominee of the party of Lincoln and Reagan”, Rubio stated.
The senator said he would definitely win in his home state of Florida on Super Tuesday and that he would win more states after that day. Some critics argue that Rubio could not remain a viable candidate unless he wins, at least, one of the 11 Republican states set to vote on March 1, but he disagrees, saying he could lose every single state and still be able to win the nomination. The senator promised in Georgia he would keep working regardless of Tuesday results.
Source: CNN